An Unexpected Factor
by HistorianoftheKais
Summary: Ranma's unique heritage gains him the interest of several goddesses who think he could be useful to their plans.
1. Prologue

Tokimi frowned as she tried to think of a new anomaly to create. Over the millennia it had become harder and harder to create new and stronger anomalies in her attempt to find the supreme deity. It was a good thing that Washu and Tsunami were pursuing alternate lines of research because their original plan was constantly becoming more and more frustrating. Perhaps she should try a concentric series of singularities and anti-singularities? No, she had done that anomaly 200,000 years ago in Dimension 64XC46400000 and had accidentally created the 'Eye of Terror' as the mortals called the collapsed result. What about a spiritual energy converter to allow mortals to tap into multidimensional energy and direct it? They did have wonderful imaginations after all and Washu's chosen people had the most imagination, creativity, and curiosity out of any mortals and would make the most use out of such an item. There was a reason why Washu's people could be found in all dimensions after all. Wait, she did that 50,000 years ago and the original trinket was currently possessed by the leader of a magical girl sentai team in Dimension NT7S1993.

A small groan came from the frustrated goddess tried to think of something new to do. The problem with being older than the universe is that after 15 billion years you start to repeat yourself even when you create plans that span millions of years. Tokimi was starting to consider that she should just create a 3 dimensional avatar, drop in on an Earth in a random dimension, and get thoroughly plastered. Okay, so the last time she did that she broke Vegas, caused New Orleans to flood (not that hard to do), and somehow ended up as the guest of honor at the Playboy Mansion. However, it wasn't like her sisters would ever find out about that!

Tokimi felt something odd coming from Dimension 001 and that caused her to stop blushing. This was the dimension her sisters inhabited in their lower dimensional forms. In less than a second, Tokimi locked onto the feeling and her consciousness focused in on the planet Earth. Her focus continued to refine itself until she was looking at a newborn baby that had just been born in a hospital in Japan. For a second the goddess wondered what had attracted her attention to the baby and then she scanned the child. A small gasp escaped her lips as she read the babe's DNA. He was a Yokai/Juraian hybrid? How could that be possible! Yosho was the only Juraian on Earth and he wasn't the child's father. Besides, the last Yokai died over 400 years so such a hybrid couldn't exist!

Wanting to get to the bottom of this delightfully unexpected mystery, Tokimi scanned the newborn's parents. She quickly noted the various dormant yokai and Juraian genes in both parents from the two groups interbreeding with the local humans. So the child was a hybrid because of atavism; a rather ordinary process with extraordinary results this time. The chances of such a thing happening were so remote as to be a freak occurrence. That interested Tokimi quite a lot because the yokai were her 'chosen' people as their power and adaptability intrigued her.

Although she felt and continued to feel that universal anomalies were the best way to find the supreme deity, Tokimi was willing to pursue other lines of research similar to her sisters from time to time. Since she was the Goddess of Change, the mutability of the yokai in their hundreds of different breeds had intrigued her enough to claim the natives of the now destroyed planet Makai. In an instant of curiosity, she had given the ancient yokai warships that rivaled the Tree Ships that Tsunami would later create. It had been quite interesting until the yokai's natural aggressiveness caused their empire to collapse over a hundred thousand years ago. Only a technologically regressed remnant managed to survive on Earth where they eventually drove themselves to extinction.

Tokimi quickly returned her thoughts to the present and considered what to do about the child. Simply ignoring him was not an option; he was too interesting and she was getting quite bored. She was debating whether she should just keep an eye on him or if she should intervene in his life since he was 'hers'. Leaving the boy alone would allow her to see how his natural progress would change him. Besides, Tsunami was the sister who thought bloodlines were the key to finding the supreme deity. But on the other hand, her interference could potentially bring back her chosen race and that had a serious tug at her heart.

Finally, Tokimi made up her mind and summoned her wings. She then brought her wings together and created the first Shadow Rider starship to exist in over 80,000 years. The starship was quite small, about the size of a shuttle, as it needed a few years to grow and mature so that it would become a demon hunting space. No one could deny that the ship would be a predator and that was the reason why the Shadows in another dimension made their battlecrab starships look like Tokimi's Shadow Riders when they caught a psychic glimpse of one. Tokimi willed the shadow rider into the Solar System's Oort cloud to grow and then set about creating a link between it and the newborn.

A frown appeared on Tokimi's face as she started encountering stiff resistance to the bonding process leaving her new creation partially bonded to the boy. How could this be? Tokimi's eyes instantly narrowed as one name came to her mind: Tsunami. The youngest Chousin instantly willed her consciousness to the starship Tsunami where her sister's consciousness was currently residing. Tokimi stormily called out, "Alright sister, what are you trying to do?"

Tsunami appeared in front of Tokimi in a concerned and frustrated state. "It's nice to see you again Tokimi, but I can't be distracted at the moment. I've recently found an interesting person and for some reason the tree for him will not bond properly."

"That is because I've already started bonding a Shadow Rider to him Sister." Tokimi said with a great deal of irritation. This whole situation was become a disaster. Mortals couldn't handle multiple simultaneous bonds and the bonding process couldn't be reversed once it started. Both sisters immediately frowned as they considered the situation. Something would have to be done to fix this snafu or the baby would soon die. Neither goddess wanted that to happen for different reasons.

Tsunami's eyes widened as a crazy idea popped into her head. It was completely unexpected and she had no idea if it could possibly work. However, it did seem suitable given the newborn's unique nature. "Tokimi, why don't we merge your shadow rider and my tree ship into a single vessel for the child?"

It was a radical idea and nearly through Tokimi for a loop. While merging two of their creations together was certainly possible, it had never been done before. All of the sisters could be quite petty when it came to their possessions. The idea of something sharing a connection between her and Tsunami burned at Tokimi. Her first reaction was that the tree ship Tsunami had created should be destroyed so that her shadow rider could properly form its link. But, she didn't want to lose the hybrid and Tsunami had just as much claim on him as she did. She also knew that Tsunami would never destroy one of her 'children'. With a frustrated grinding of teeth Tokimi said, "Alright sister let's merge the ships."

Both sisters thought for a second about what they should do to merge the vessels they had created and then nodded their heads in unison. Their presences shifted to outside the Tsunami with both of the newly created vessels positioned in front of its creator. Summoning the ships from their respective maturation points was easy for them. Tokimi and Tsunami both summoned five light hawk wings. Both sets of wings pushed the two first generation ships together and then enclosed them in a sphere of power. Twitches appeared on both goddesses faces as the each poured more power into the sphere in an attempt to one up the other and have their original vessel take precedence in this new creation.

After a minute, the energy sphere cracked like an egg causing both goddesses to gasp in surprise. The new vessel had the basic hull design of a Jurian ship. However, it was completely covered in the shadow black armor of a shadow rider. The ship, or rather the Yashataisho as the goddesses heard the ship name give its name, was still small for the moment. That would soon change as it was already starting to grow. Yashataisho started flying to the Kuiper Belt to await its full maturation leaving the goddesses silent in its wake. Both of them could feel the ship's potential and knew that one day Yashataisho would be a powerful and chaotic steed for its partner to shake things up in the galaxy.


	2. Enter the Demon Barge

Mount Horaisan was crumbling around the six martial artists as it was no longer able to withstand the abuse Herb and Ranma had heaped upon it. Ranma held the currently unconscious prince in his arms and tried to spot a safe way down the mountain. For a second Ranma thought he had a way out, but the ground collapsed into a chasm too big for him in his current state to pass. "Hey guys," Ranma shouted out in frustration, "Do any of you see a way off this collapsing rock?" Mint and Lime shook their heads as they moved closer to Ranma so that they could protect Herb. Ryoga and Mousse both shot Ranma looks that asked him if he was nuts.

The situation became bleaker as more fissures isolated the six from any paths down the collapsing mountain. Ranma growled in frustration as he quickly determined that trying to scale the fissures was too dangerous at the moment. He just didn't have enough ki to risk jumping down the constantly shifting terrain. Perhaps he could use his power to reinforce the ground under him like a shield or some sort of surf board? That was an idea, but not a useable one since he had almost no power left. In fact, Ranma was shocked that he wasn't out cold like Herb from ki exhaustion given all of the energy he had used up in the fight. Now that Ranma was thinking about it, it didn't make any sense that he was still alive, let alone awake, with all the ki he had used up. Sure, he had used a lot of Herb's ki against him. However, that still didn't explain things as it was almost like his ki was being replenished.

Ranma dodged a falling boulder and his eyes widened as he felt his ki reserves start to fill up faster than they should. Something was replenishing his ki which explained how he had survived his fight with Herb. Later he could be pissed about something interfering in his match, but at the moment Ranma couldn't care less. Ranma took a great risk and closed his eyes for a second in order to search his ki for whatever was refilling his reserves. Hopefully, he could find where this new ki was coming from and speed up his ki regeneration. The point of the ki infusion was quickly spotted and Ranma immediately started trying to will it larger.

The instant he did that he heard a voice in his head that sounded both bestial and mechanical, "Request for increased power transfer denied. Partner currently does not have that level of authorization. Partner's physical state is unable to handle power transfer at higher level."

Narrowly avoiding falling into another chasm, Ranma growled again in frustration. Figures that something would give him the power to win back his manhood and then not give him the power to live. "Look," Ranma growled out causing the other conscious martial artists to look at him. "I don't know who you are or why you're restoring my ki. However, I need my ki fully restored I'm to get myself and my friends out of this mess alive."

Before any of the martial artists could talk about Ranma going nuts, he heard that voice again in his head. "Sensors indicate that partner is in a life threatening environment. Rescue operation of partner and partner's companions is to commence at soonest opportunity. Moving to start extraction, ETA is 11 seconds." The voice then cut off and Ranma got the impression that there was no way he could distract it from its current task.

Mousse then spoke in a bit of a panic. "Hey Ranma can you not go crazy and pull a last minute save out of your ass? In case you haven't noticed, the mountain is collapsing and we have no way down!" Mousse then looked at the crumbling waterfall that was now totally out of reach with longing. If only he could somehow activate his curse and fly out of this mess. That was looking like it was his only option for survival given the fact that Ranma was obviously losing it. However, the amazon's line of thought quickly ended when he noticed that the sky was suddenly turning pitch black. Mousse took a second to look up and almost turned into a blubbering mess.

Up in the sky was a massive, nearly 2 km long, black vessel that looked almost like a twisted and demonic rowboat. Even with the mountain collapsing around them, everyone looked up and gasped at the sight of the powerful vessel. As Ranma looked that the vessel he didn't feel frightened like the others. He then whispered out, "Yashataisho." A bright flash of purple light blinded everyone just after Ranma said the ship's name.

Seconds later the blinding flash ended and the six warriors were on a peaceful grassy plane that was interlaced with small springs. Ranma carefully set Herb down on the ground and looked around at the Yashataisho's main chamber. A quick glance at the roof of the chamber showed that Yashataisho was quickly returning to space. Ranma wasn't quite sure why, but he felt completely at peace here as if he had come home for the first time in a long time. The young martial artist stood up and said, "Alright everyone we're safe here on the Yashataisho."

Ryoga blinked his eyes in confusion and then his gaze started bouncing between Ranma and the now visible stars through the domed roof. With disbelief clear in his voice Ryoga demanded, "And just how do you know that Ranma? For all we know this ship could be taking us to the edge of the universe!"

With a roll of his eyes, Ranma dismissed his friend's worries. "Maybe if you were partnered with Yashataisho we'd have to worry about that. However, I know that it won't take us father than oh I don't know the dark side of the Moon." Receiving its orders Yashataisho quickly maneuvered itself to the dark side of the moon causing everyone who was still awake to stare at Ranma in shock. Ranma shook his head and then said, "Hey Yashataisho, do you think you can explain just why I know your name and what you are in such a way that everyone else doesn't think I'm nuts?"

Yashataisho then spoke through its sound system in the same beastly and yet mechanical voice that Ranma had heard in his head. "I am the Umbra Ship Yashataisho, an experimental hybrid starship created by the goddesses Tsunami and Tokimi using their traditional Tree Ship and Shadow Rider vessels as a base. My purpose and role is to serve as partner to the individual known as Ranma per baseline instructions of Tsunami and Tokimi implanted in my creation shortly after Ranma's birth."

Lime then spoke up in a slightly annoyed manner. "Why would these goddesses give Ranma Saotome a mystical ship like this instead of someone like Lord Herb?" Both Lime and Mint looked at their sleeping master and were pissed at him being slighted in this manner.

There was silence for a moment before Yashataisho spoke again. "Partner Ranma, do you wish for me to answer the question just asked by your companion?"

Ranma nodded his head and replied, "Sure." In all honestly, he wanted to know why Yashataisho was his as well. The fact that two goddesses had made it for him was something even he was having trouble wrapping around his brain. Hopefully, Yashataisho could give him some answers without also giving him more questions.

While still speaking in the same tone, Ranma's umbra ship gave the impression of an annoyed teacher speaking to a student who was refusing to understand the lesson. "The being identified as Herb is quite unremarkable in terms of ability when compared to the galactic population; even if the sample size was limited to just species native to this sector of space. Genetic analysis indicates that he possess only double the life expectancy of a baseline human and 30% more bio-energy generation than a baseline human. Such figures could be dramatically increased with standard galactic medical techniques, but then Herb would still only be considered a standard to upper level threat in terms of destructive capabilities."

"On the other hand, partner Ranma is a Yokai/Juraian hybrid because of atavism through dormant paternal and maternal genes. The Yokai, now an extinct species, were the chosen of Tokimi and the Juraians are the chosen of Tsunami. Ranma's unique nature attracted the goddesses' attention and I was created as a result of both goddesses deciding to create a partner for him. Genetic analysis shows that even without standard galactic medical techniques or the added benefits of a bond partner such as me, Ranma is an upper level to top level threat in terms of destructive capability."

The four conscious martial artists turned to look at Ranma in shock. What surprised them was the completely confused look on Ranma's face. Ranma wasn't sure what bothered him more; the fact that Yashataisho said that he wasn't human or Yashataisho's claim about his power. Now Ranma knew what an atavism was; biology was one of the few studies his father encouraged him to do instead of merely tolerating since it could help him in martial arts. Ranma quickly decided to tackle his second question and leave his heritage to another day. "Hey Yashataishou, how can I be a bigger threat than Herb when I felt that he was stronger than me in our fight?"

Ryoga and Mousse were shocked to hear Ranma admit that someone was stronger than him. In fact, they might have considered to possibility that he was possessed if they hadn't already been thrown for so many loops today. Lime and Mint both wanted to know the answer to Ranma's question. They were willing to consider that Ranma might be roughly as skilled as Herb, maybe a touch luckier, but not stronger than their master. The fact that Ranma had admitted he was weaker helped to keep their tempers in check.

Yashataisho calmly replied, "Partner Ranma's current comparative weakness to Herb is due to the fact that Ranma has not yet begun adolescence. While my partner appears to be a teenager by human biological standards, biologically he is equivalent to a 6 year old human in terms of his development. This will change in a few months to a year when Ranma enters his adolescence and begins a relatively rapid development into adulthood. Once adolescence begins, Ranma should become a full adult in six months to a year based off of analysis of his genetic code."

Wanting to distract everyone from what Yashataisho said and to give himself a chance to think, Ranma asked, "Hey partner. Is there any chance we can get something to eat?" A few seconds after Ranma said that, a table rose up from the ground loaded with a feast fit for a king. Everyone was too distracted by their hunger to focus on anything expect for the food.

* * *

After Herb woke up and the feast was demolished, everyone scattered to relax in the garden like main chamber of Yashataisho. While the others were all looking at the Moon, Ranma made his way to the center of chamber where Yashataisho's CPU, the tree itself, was located. Unlike Tsunami's typical trees, Yashataisho looked like a twisted European Yew with black bark and crimson red leaves. Others would probably find the tree creepy to look at or even down right demonic. However, Ranma thought his partner looked perfect. He put a hand on the bark and felt a sensation of warmth, peace, and utter confidence. It was as if he instinctively knew that he and Yashataisho together could handle any threat that they could possibly face. Ranma looked up at the stars and whispered, "Tokimi and Tsunami, I don't know if you either of you can hear me. I just wanted to say thanks for giving me my partner and I'll try to be worthy of him."

Yashataisho decided to speak again directly to Ranma's mind. "Partner, I wanted to inform you that our bond is currently on a very rudimentary basis. Currently, it is difficult for you and me to speak to each other if you are outside of my starship body unless you focus a great deal on our bond. There are several other points where our bond is not at optimal conditions, but I do not believe you wish to hear them at this time. These deficiencies can be solved by giving you my key, a unique artifact that helps our bond. I was planning on giving my key to you once you had reached adulthood as is traditional among the Juraians. However, recent analysis of your situation has made me reconsider this decision and so I have decided to leave the decision up to you. Ranma, do you want the key now or do you want to wait?"

That was a no brainer to Ranma. "There's no way in hell I'm going to risk not being able to talk with you Yashataisho. Give me the key." Ranma felt a warm sensation in his heart that he could only attribute to being gratitude from his partner. He then saw a purple glow around his arms from his hands to his elbows. The glow lasted for several seconds and then faded away to reveal an obsidian colored brace on each arm. Each brace had a small slit at the base of his palm and then a small silver nob on the other side of the slit. An energy beam about 20 cm long shot out of each slit and stayed active for a few seconds before disengaging.

In Ranma's head he heard his partner's voice again. "My key has two parts even though both parts can be operated separately. Each part has a blade as you can see. They also have a long range offensive ability to fire blasts of energy equivalent to one of your Moko Takaibisha. Finally, the key can generate a force field for personal defense. Only one of these functions can be activated by a piece of the key at a time. However, you can have each piece using a different function. Also, you can activate each function and select which part is utilizing which power at any time with a mental command. Do you have a setting you wish to choose at this time?"

Ranma thought about it for a few seconds and then mentally answered his partner. "Have the right bracer set to provide the shield and have the right bracer use the hidden dagger. If possible, I'd like for the force field to be activated to block any cold water that could touch me unless I say otherwise."

Almost instantly the reply came, "Done Ranma. Partner, I feel that you should be aware of another very important fact that will alter your perspective on life. However, you have already had to deal with several paradigm shifts in a very short time already. It might be advisable for you to wait on learning this fact until you have had time to properly adjust to the previous revelations you've learned today. Do you wish to learn of this fact or do you wish to delay this disclosure for a later date?"

It didn't take Ranma long to reach a decision on this matter. "Just tell me partner. Not knowing whatever it is you're referring to will just drive me nuts." Between finding out that goddesses were interested in him and that he was a hybrid, Ranma figured he could handle anything.

Yashataisho calmly replied, "Due to a combination of your genetics and our partnership you will have an extremely long lifespan. Exactly how long your probable lifespan is cannot be completely calculated due to your and my unique natures. A conservative estimate gives you a lifespan on the order of 40,000 years. On the other hand, a reasonable but still optimistic estimate has you being able to live over 100,000 years. Also, your physical appearance will stop aging once you reach your full physical maturity. This will necessitate your acquiring some means of disguising this fact from normal humans or relocating to a place where extended lifespans are not looked at as unusual."

Okay, that was not what Ranma was expected to hear. He had a lifespan measured in millennia? It was almost too fantastic for Ranma to believe. But, his whole life seemed to be too fantastic to believe at times. That still didn't make it easy for Ranma to swallow that he had the potential to live several times longer than humanity's entire history. He nearly fainted as another thought entered Ranma's mind: his fiancées. They'd only live a fraction of his life and would quickly wither away while he stayed young. Could he put them through that of them aging while he stayed ageless? Was it possible for him to bare staying young while his wife transformed into something like Cologne? In all honesty, Ranma wasn't quite sure he could handle thinking about that now.

While its partner tried to think about these matters, Yashataisho tried to consider what advice to give. The now deepened connection between the partners allowed the umbra ship to actually read Ranma's mind and see how the young hybrid was using his mind. It also allowed Yashataisho to scan its partner's memories causing the ship to become emotionally steamed. There were numerous incidents in Nerima where people got upset over Ranma acting inappropriately or childish. Part of that was because of Genma poor parenting outside of martial arts, but a large part of that was due to the fact that Ranma was a child. Analysis of Ranma's brain and genes revealed to Yashataisho that Ranma had an underdevelopment in his emotional abilities, social connections, and advanced cognitive functions. In laymen's terms, Ranma's looked at most things through the eyes of a child of possibly 10 to 12 years of age.

The reason for this temporary underdevelopment is that Ranma's body was preparing for his rapid maturation upon adolescence starting. Almost all of Ranma's brain development during his teen years was in his subconscious ability to regulate and control bioenergy so that he could control the massive powers his maturation would bring. The rest of his mental development was minute in various areas that could be collectively labeled battlefield awareness. It was a good thing that Ranma's brain had developed as it had as no human brain could hope to regulate the power a Yokai/Juraian would have even without a partner. Without this development Ranma would rapidly lose control of his powers as they developed and he'd explode with the force of 80 to 90 megatons by a conservative estimate. Given that Ranma lived in the largest metropolitan area on Earth and the biggest explosion in human history was the Tsar bomb at 50 megatons, Yashataisho figured a lot of people would be grateful for Ranma's 'inappropriate' behavior.

* * *

The Tendo family was watching the news. "This is just in from our sources on the ground," the news reporter said. "For some completely unknown reason, Mount Horaisan has collapsed. Scientists are still trying to figure out why this mountain collapsed as it does not exist on any fault lines. Until such time as the safety of the mountain chain can be determined, the entire area is deemed forbidden by the local government. I repeat the entire area is forbidden until local authorities are able to identify what caused the collapse."

Nabiki chuckled and then said, "Good luck with that. Knowing Ranma and the rest of his gang, they somehow caused that mountain to collapse."

Kasumi let out a small gasp of surprise. "Oh my, surely you aren't serious Nabiki? Ranma and his friends may play a little rough at times, but I don't think that they'd actually destroy an entire mountain!"

The middle daughter pulled out a manga book and started to leaf through it. "This is Ranma "Master of Disaster" Saotome we're talking about sis. Between his usual luck and father's threat if his curse isn't unlocked, I wouldn't be too surprised he somehow caused Honshu to sink. Since I got all the winnings as no one won the bet as to how long this adventure of Ranma's will last, I really couldn't care less."

Akane silently listened to her sisters' conversation and immediately ignored Soun and Genma as they started on their own hypothesis as to what Ranma was up to at the moment. Part of Akane was worried for Ranma and hoped that he had managed to unlock his curse. Ranma didn't deserve to have his cursed locked even though he was a complete jerk at times. Besides, there was the possibility of her father being serious about what he said. Akane stopped herself from thinking about that particular nightmare fuel as she didn't need to wake up screaming in horror again over it.

All this speculation ended when a column of purple light filled the Tendo living room and grabbed everyone's attention. The column vanished after a few seconds to reveal Ranma, Ryoga, and Mousse calmly standing in their normal forms. Ranma grinned like nothing had happened and confidently said, "So how have things been going since I left?"

Soun started to cry. "Oh happy day, Ranma's curse has been unlocked and now he can be with his loving fiancée again!" The waterworks ended when a purple energy shield appeared several feet in front of Ranma blocking the flying tears.

Genma and the Tendos all stared at the shield in shock that didn't end when the shield disappeared. Ryoga looked at Ranma and said, "Let me guess. That had something to do with your starship, didn't it Ranma?"

Like a kid on Christmas morning, Ranma grinned at his fellow martial artists. "Yep, I had Yashataisho set a basic force field on permanent standby around me. It activates whenever cold water comes within a meter of me unless I temporarily deactivate the field first. My partner may not be able to cure my curse, but it was able to come up with a sweet second place solution."

At this point Nabiki started making a time out sign with her hands. "Hold your horses for just a moment boys and back up. What is this about Ranma having a spaceship and a partner?" The normal insanity and weirdness was something Nabiki could easily handle and keep her cool about. However, the shield and now the mention of a spaceship were just too weird even for Nerima. Wasn't there supposed to a break from the major insanity once Ranma returned?

Mousse spoke up, "Apparently Ranma attracted the attention of some goddesses so they created a starship for him. From what Ranma has hinted, his starship and he share some sort of symbiotic bond. Of course, his starship also revealed that Ranma is still a little kid!"

Ranma immediately whacked Mousse upside the head at the little kid comment. "You idiot, Yashataisho said that my development is equivalent to a typical six year old. In other words, I still have a ways to grow in power before I approach my peak power! That's a lot more than can be said for you. I'm the one who will be among the heavy hitters on the galactic scale of power." Both boys shot Ranma dirty looks, but didn't say anything as they knew Ranma was telling the truth.

Akane let a sigh of exasperation out when she heard that from her fiancé. Great, the last thing she needed was Ranma's ego getting any bigger. The jerk was already able to shoot it off as an attack and that was before the whole Musk fiasco. Another thing that bothered Akane was mention of goddesses becoming interested in Ranma. Just how on earth did that happen; did Uncle Genma offer Ranma as a groom to them or something? Akane silently said a quick prayer that this wasn't the case. It wasn't that she liked Ranma. Heck, the goddesses could have the jerk if that turned out to be the case. She just didn't want to deal with two more girls after her fiancé that's all.

Genma wasn't quite sure what to do about this latest revelation. After thinking about for a few seconds, he decided to grab Ranma and chuck him into the koi pond. "You're slipping boy! This is what happens if you don't train often." Genma then rushed towards the pond with a small grin on his face. It was all so simple to Genma. He'd through his son into the pond, out would come his 'daughter', they'd spar for a few minutes, and then things would be back to normal once he emerged the victor of their little spar.

However, things didn't go as Genma planed as the whole ballgame had been changed by this latest adventure. A purple shield appeared on the koi pond and Ranma landed on the shield. He then jumped off the shield and planted his foot in Genma's face. Genma's guard was completely down as he never expected this to happen. Nabiki just shook her head and muttered, "Things are just about to get crazier around here aren't they?"

* * *

The next day Ranma and Akane were walking to Furinkan as if Ranma hadn't been gone for the past couple of weeks. Akane looked up at Ranma as he walked on the chain fence with uncertainty. "Hey Ranma," Akane hesitantly asked, "What's it like up in space?" It had been bugging her ever since she had heard about Yashataisho, but she hadn't been sure how to ask Ranma about space immediately.

Ranma looked down at Akane and her cute curious face and felt torn in a dozen directions. The boy couldn't say exactly which directions he was being torn in because it was beyond his comprehension. Ranma just sighed and said, "It's quite beautiful Akane. The stars are brilliant and there are more of them to see than you can see even on a clear night on Earth. They don't twinkle like they do on Earth and up there they are just points of light. However, the real view is looking at the planets. I just can't put it into words how it feels to look up and stare at the Earth."

Akane nodded as she listened to the awe and wonder in Ranma's voice. She had never heard him sound this amazed when he first encountered ki attacks. Part of Akane was impressed that something had managed to get Ranma's attention besides martial arts. But, it also made her uncomfortable since once again Ranma had gone on an unbelievable adventure. When would things become normal with Ranma?

Murphy apparently was listening and answered Akane's plea. "Halt," Kuno yelled out, "You will not darken this school with you foul presence again Saotome. I, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High will not permit this travesty to happen."

Ranma really didn't want to deal with the village idiot this early in the week. In fact, he didn't want to deal with Kuno ever again if he could get away with it. What made all of this worse was the young hybrid was sure Principal Kuno would get involved if he was late to school on his first day back. Ranma immediately contacted Yashataisho as an idea popped into his head. "Hey partner, can your force fields be made stay in the air or perhaps fly?"

Yashataisho considered its partner's request for a few nanoseconds before replying. "The force field can stay suspended in midair even if it is supporting your weight. It can also be shaped into an airfoil so as to glide. However, it can't generate lift."

Ranma grinned when he heard that and quickly sent several mental commands to his partner. He then jumped high into the air and landed on a platform of purple energy. "Who are you to claim that my presence is a travesty when I have been blessed by two goddesses since my birth? A wise man would say that it is you who foul the school with your presence as you chase after two women who want nothing to do with you. Listen to my words as one who has been blessed to walk in the heavens. End this foolishness of yours or you will be cast into Yomi." With that said, Ranma calmly started walking towards his classroom. The force field supporting the hybrid was constantly adjusted by Yashataisho so that Ranma always had a path to walk on. Soon enough, Ranma reached his classroom and he imminently opened the window so that he could go inside.

Down below all of Ranma's classmates were looking at the fading purple pathway in awe and wonder. The boy hadn't even been gone for a month and now he could walk on air! How the hell does Ranma constantly pull stuff like this out of nowhere? Certain students were especially shocked at the young hybrid's latest technique. Nabiki started to wonder how she could get Ranma out of her life; the boy was just becoming too weird for her to handle. Uyko wanted to know how her fiancé had learned to walk on air and if he could teach her that technique. Kuno's face was pale as a ghost as he tried to put what he had just seen into perspective. Akane suppressed a groan as she now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that things had taken a turn for the stranger.

* * *

Author's note: Just so fans know, An Unexpected Factor is replacing The Shinobi and the Amazon in my writing lineup as my muse for that story has become completely uncooperative. Also, Ranma is not all powerful. Even when he gets his full powers he isn't going to dominate everyone even though he will be one of the heavy hitters.


	3. First Burdens of Power

Ranma air happily walked into his classroom for the second day in a row. Not only was it great balance training when he had Yashataisho make the force field a centimenter wide, but no one could interrupt him during his walk! Ranma was happy to hear that his fellow students were far less vocal in their shock at his entry. By the end of the week they should be treating his training as just another one of his oddities to ignore. Kuno already had adapted by calling him a 'fallen angel out to lead the fierce tigress and the pigtail girl astray'. Akane was no doubt dealing with Kuno at the moment and would probably be steamed at him. However, Ranma couldn't bring himself to care as Yashataisho's force field could intercept her mallet. The young hybrid was surprised that he didn't hear his teacher complain about his antics and looked around. Not seeing the teacher Ranma asked, "Hey where's the teach?"

One of the other students spoke up, "Don't you pay attention Saotome? Mr. Kubo turned in his resignation yesterday after Kuno attacked you again. As I recall he said, 'If I wanted to deal with crazy swordsmen then I'll stick to those death gods that keep bugging me!' Congratulations Saotome, this is the 5th teacher you've scared off this semester. At this rate we'll have You-Know-Who as our teacher by spring break."

Another student spoke up with fear in his voice, "Don't say that! Insanity follows Saotome like flies to honey. I wouldn't put it past him to somehow be involved in summoning a fictional psychotic wizard into reality and then that wizard being hired to teach us!"

The first student to speak smacked her forehead and groaned. "I meant the head nut you fool!"

"That's even worse."

Ranma rolled his eyes and slumped back into desk chair. Seriously, the insanity that followed him wasn't that bad. Perhaps it was because they were human? That wasn't exactly a thought Ranma wanted to entertain at the moment. While the young hybrid knew he wasn't human, he still wanted to think of himself as a human. At least, he wanted to keep a human outlook on things since that was all he knew. The kami knew that Ranma had all the time in the world to change how he viewed things. That was a fact that he was still getting used to during his frequent talks with his Umbra ship.

Any more musing by Ranma ended when the classroom door slammed open and Akane walked in huffing up a storm. Her favorite mallet was in her hand and indented with Kuno's mug on one side. She gave Ranma an evil glare and then sat down at her desk. A small shutter of terror filled Ranma as he felt the anger rolling off of Akane. Obviously, Kuno had been more annoying than usual and Akane was pissed about dealing with the moron without him there to deflect some attention. The young hybrid figured that he just needed to keep his head down and Akane would be fine by lunch.

Just to be on the safe side, Ranma decided to ignore Uyko's attempts to talk with him. Sure Uyko was his friend, but she was also a fiancée and that meant that he wasn't sure what to do about her. Ranma already had enough headaches with his fiancée situation before his lifespan was discovered. Besides, talking friendly with her at the moment could set Akane off and he did not need that headache. Why Akane would be upset with him, the young hybrid couldn't figure out even if he was sure it would one day put his life on the line. However, he figured that he didn't have to understand as long as he knew A would lead to B so that he could avoid P, the Pain he'd get from a mallet!

These thoughts of Ranma came to a sudden halt when the door opened and a young girl walked into the classroom. Everyone stared in shock as the young girl walked over to the teacher's desk and hopped onto the teacher's chair. She then turned to face the class and said in a childish tone, "Hello everyone. I am Hinako Ninomiya and I am to be your new homeroom teacher and English teacher. I understand that there are a lot of delinquents in this class and I want to tell you now that such behavior will not be tolerated."

One of the students in the front row blurted out, "What the hell? How can a little kid be our teacher?"

Hinako smiled and said, "Oh goody, a delinquent has volunteered to demonstrate what will happen! Take this, Happōgoensatsu!" Hinako pulled out a five yen coin and quickly drained the student of his excess ki and turned into her adult form. Her body posture took on a much more serious tone in the adult form. Hinako then firmly said, "I trust that there will be no more disturbances after this? Good," she said after seeing all her students nod their heads.

Several students then sent scathing looks to Ranma for a split second. They figured that Ranma had to be the reason they got stuck with such a dangerous teacher. Ranma just ignored the glares as he didn't see a problem with Hinako. With a bit of luck, she should stop Kuno and the other nuts from bugging him in class!

* * *

The next day at lunch the typical Nerima craziness was in full swing. Ukyo and Shampoo were both fighting over whose specialty lunch Ranma was going to eat. Akane was growling over the girls hanging off of Ranma. Kuno was rushing at Ranma with his bokken raised claiming that he'd smite the 'foul sorcerer' and would be in the middle of the mess in seconds. As for Ranma, he just wanted to eat his lunch in peace! He was having a bad day since water had been trying to hit every single chance it got. Seriously, how could all of the fire hydrants spring a leak just as he walks by? Many students were watching the floorshow and wondered how this episode of mealtime madness would end.

Most of the students were shocked out of their minds when Hinako opened the window of the teacher's lounge and shouted out, "You delinquents! You're supposed to be having lunch in peace. There's only one way to deal with the likes of you, Happōgoensatsu!" Hinako held out her coin and started to absorb the ki of the five 'troublemakers'. Akane and Ukyo were the first to fall to the ground. Kuno joined them a second and a half later. Shampoo shocked Ranma by lasting another ten seconds until she collapsed as well. Ranma was forced to his knees from the strain of having his energy forcefully siphoned off. Thanks to Yashataisho, Ranma received enough energy to keep going until Hinako ended her technique. A small smirk appeared of Ranma's face as he started to stand up in smug defiance of the ki vampire.

Ranma's smugness crashed and burned when he looked up and saw Hinako in her adult form pale as a ghost. Hinako's body started to shake and Ranma watched in shock as Furinkan's newest teacher started puking out the window. Since Hinako had previously used the Happōgoensatsu seven times safely, and three times on groups of students, so it didn't take a genius to figure out what was causing her current reaction. Ranma didn't know how as he ran for the door and started racing for the teacher's lounge, but he was certain that he was the cause of Hinako's current state. Without hesitation, Ranma kicked down the door to the lounge and ran over to the distressed teacher.

One of the other teachers was going to yell at Ranma for breaking down the door. However, a single glare from Ranma stopped the words from forming in her mouth. Ranma walked over to Hinako and noticed that she was now flopping on the floor and suffering from severe diarrhea in addition to her continual vomiting. Ranma grabbed onto Hinako and yelled out, "Transport both of us to your medical bay immediately Yashataisho!"

A burst of purple light heralded the transporter and then the duo was in the Umbra ship's medical bay. Ranma hurriedly put Hinako on a medical bed and called out, "Yashataisho, I want you to start treating her immediately." His partner instantly complied with the request and several holograms of galaxy famous surgeons appeared in the room to treat Hinako. Knowing he couldn't do anything to help at this point, Ranma walked away from the medical bay and started heading for Yashataisho's central core. Five minutes later, Ranma walked over to the black tree and leaned against it. He let out a sigh and asked, "How is she doing?"

Yashataisho simply replied, "The paitent is in critical condition. However, there is a 78.26 percent chance that she will pull through and have a complete recovery if she lives through the next hour. It is a good thing you got the patient to the medical bay when you did partner. The medical facilities on Earth are incapable of treating let alone curing acute Bioenergy Contamination Sickness."

Ranma frowned and asked, "What is Bioenergy Contamination Sickness and how did I cause Hinako to get this illness?"

The Umbra ship quickly started to explain things to its partner. "Bioenergy Contamination Sickness or BCS is a type of radiation illness that occurs when a being absorbs large quantities of bioenergy that are of a noticeably different frequency than their own bioenergy's frequency. The most common example of this is a being with a low bioenergy frequency absorbing a blast of energy from a being with a higher frequency. Typically, beings with high-frequency bioenergy will naturally adjust lower frequency bioenergy they absorb into their normal high-frequency energy. BCS only occurs in high-frequency beings when they are confronted by energies in quantities multiple times greater than their regular energy reserves."

At this point, Ranma's eyeballs were practically swimming in confusion. He had no clue as to what Yashataisho meant by bioenergy frequencies. Wasn't ki just ki? Sensing its partner's confusion, Yashataisho summoned a display in front of Ranma. The top half of the display showed several waves of different frequencies color coded from violet to red in order of highest frequency to lowest. On the bottom half of the display was the complete visible spectrum. There was a heading for the color display that said, 'bioenergy potential'.

Yashataisho that told Ranma, "This is a visual representation of various species' bioenergy frequencies which on Earth are known as ki. If you will direct your attention to the diagrams of waves you will see them displayed in order of frequency and thus power. Imagine if I was to take these lines and stretch them out Partner. Which line would be longest and which would be shortest?"

Ranma quickly replied, "The violet line would be the longest and the red line would be the shortest."

"Correct Partner, the violet line is longer than the red line and thus it takes more energy to travel down the violet line in the same time it would take to travel down the red line. Now this has no correlation to the amount of bioenergy a being has. Another way to look at it is if you were to take two jars that are exactly the same and fill one with water and the other with molasses. One of the jars will be heavier than the other. You could think of the weight of a jar in this analogy as bioenergy's frequency and the amount of jars as bioenergy reserves. This is a simplified understanding of bioenergy from a scientific perspective."

"The point Partner is that your bioenergy frequency is far higher than Hinako's frequency. On the display in front of you her bioenergy would be position here in the red part of the spectrum. This is typical of humanity as 1 standard unit of bioenergy, which is the minimum quantity of energy an adult person needs to stay alive and healthy, at this frequency leaves little excess energy for manipulation. On the other hand, your bioenergy frequency is here on the blue/violet divide. If your bioenergy's frequency was converted on a 1:1 basis down to that of a human's, one SU of your bioenergy would become nearly thirty SUs. For all intents and purposes, Hinako was absorbing lethal radiation from you similar to a person that is near a nuclear plant that has damaged radiation shielding."

Ranma's eyes bulged out in fear and he stammered out, "Radiation poisoning? What about Pops and the Tendos? Am I a threat to the health of everyone in Nerima?" A nightmarish vision of the city being quarantined by men in radiation suits filled Ranma's mind.

Yashataisho quickly answered its partner's question. "That is a negative. Unlike electromagnetic radiation, bioenergy cannot be simply absorbed by a sentient being. This is due to the A.T. field that all sentient beings possess. For simplicity's sake, the A.T. field can be thought of as a second skin that surrounds your body protecting it from bioenergy and other phenomenon noted as 'paranormal' by undeveloped cultures. At the same time, the A.T. field keeps a being's bioenergy contained within them. This is why it is much easier for someone to strengthen their body for superior physical capabilities than to project bioenergy in any form."

At that point Ranma let out a relaxed sigh and said, "Enough of the lecture for now Yashataisho. I'm going to take a nap. Please wake me when Hinako is better."

* * *

Once Ranma was soundly asleep, Yashataisho decided to enact a plan it had been developing over the past few days to deal with a potential threat to Ranma. It created a small force field around its partner and then filled the atmosphere in the bubble with a sedative to keep Ranma asleep. Once that was taken care of, Yashataisho enacted phase two of the plan and turned on the transporter array.

The transporter beam faded away ten feet from Ranma to reveal a startled Nodoka Saotome. The Saotome matriarch looked around in shock and called out, "Who did this? Where am I? How did I get here?"

"I brought you onboard Nodoka Saotome. I am the Umbra ship Yashataisho and I have brought you aboard to determine whether or not you must be eliminated for Ranma Saotome's safety. Ranma is my bonded partner and I will insure his safety, happiness, and wishes to the best of my ability with his safety being first of these. You possess a contract that gives you the right, legally or not, to determine Ranma's fitness for existence. Genma Saotome has delayed solving this problem due to his own mistakes leading in his mind to a death sentence. Genma's life holds no meaning for me so I do not care whether he lives or dies. My partner will eventually have to come with his father's passing one day in the future regardless. However, it is you who are being judged by me Nodoka Saotome. Your options are either declaring Ranma as a 'man among men', permanent suspension of the contract, or your death by ejection into the sun."

Nodoka frowned when Yashataisho said that her husband was avoiding her out of fear for his life. That wasn't very manly at all! What on earth could make Genma think that she'd have to invoke the seppuku pledge? Was Ranma a weakling who couldn't throw a punch? Was he a hoodlum working for the Yakuza? Or, Nodoka's greatest fear was he batting for the other team? She also wasn't sure about this Yashataisho. How could a spaceship be her son's partner and what right did it have to interfere with a pact of honor? Steeling her courage Nodoka demanded, "Where is Ranma and why is Genma hiding him from me?"

Yashataisho made the force field around Ranma glow for a few seconds to catch Nodoka's attention. Nodoka quickly started walking towards the glow thinking that the ship she was on had kidnapped Ranma. As soon as she saw Ranma's face she knew he was her son. Up until the trip to China, Genma had sent her a photo of Ranma every year for her birthday. Nodoka couldn't see any problems with her son; he definitely had the body of a serious martial artist. She tried to touch him and the force field stopped her hand and inch from Ranma's face. "Why won't Genma let me meet Ranma?" Nodoka softly muttered to herself.

Ranma's partner heard what she said and answered the question. "Due to Genma's poor planning, both he and Ranma are cursed. This is a permanent curse and activates with cold water while deactivating with hot water." Yashataisho then summoned enough water to activate the curse and Ranma changed into a girl.

"Ranko Tendo?" Nodoka whispered in shock and a bit of horror. Ranko, dear sweet tomboy Ranko was actually her son? Memories of all of her encounters with the young redhead rushed at Nodoka. All those times Ranko jumped to help her out wasn't because she was starved for attention; it was because her son wanted to be with his mother even when he was a girl. But how could her son be a man among men if he was a girl half the time? Genma had to have told Ranma about the pledge or he wouldn't have hidden himself as 'Ranko' which was rather unmanly. At the same time, wasn't it manly and courageous to risk your life to try and be near someone you care about?

While Tokimi and Tsunami had given Yashataisho many gifts, patience when it comes to Ranma's safety was not one of them. Yashataisho practically growled out, "Make your decision Mrs. Saotome. Is the contract concluded, suspended, or are you facing execution?" Like any sentient warship, Yashataisho was only capable of gunboat diplomacy.

Nodoka's mind was trying to wrap itself around the fact that Ranko and Ranma was the same person, something her honor slanted but still rational mind had trouble accepting. Then there was the fact that she had been effectively abducted by a sentient spaceship that was tossing out death threats to her like they were party favors. Add this all together with the fact her hopes on Genma and Ranma returning were what kept her going and it was no surprise that Nodoka collapsed into a sobbing mess. "What am I to do?" Nodoka sobbed, "Ranma was supposed to be a man among men, but how can he do that with that curse?"

Yashataisho growled out over the speakers, "You made that contract Nodoka Saotome and now you must choose! I will have this problem solved by the time my partner wakes up one way or another."

Trying to buy herself some time to think, Nodoka yelled out, "And what will Ranma think about you when he finds out about all of this?"

"I have run thousands of simulations on my partner's likely actions regardless of your choice in this matter. Ranma has repeatedly demonstrated forgiveness whose actions negatively affect him if done for even seemingly honorable reasons. I have a divine mandate from the moment of my creation to keep him safe. He will most likely understand my reasoning even if I need to terminate you. There is a good possibility of him being angry at me for your termination if such a step is necessary. However, even under a worst case scenario Ranma will only be mad at me for a century or two. Given both of our lifespans, such a time frame is inconsequential. Now enough of the delays and choose."

The mentioning of centuries being inconsequential gave Nodoka an idea. "I cannot honorably end the pact as it would require actions neither of us wants to happen. However, Genma's debacle and the introduction of outside factors does allow for some give in the contract; especially since Ranma is supposed to return home a man among men. Here is my suggestion, Ranma agrees to stay away from the family house and me until he proves that he is a man among men and in return I won't visit the Tendos or Nerima. Given his curse, I think Ranma marrying a girl will fulfill the terms quite nicely. Only a real man among men could win a woman's love with a curse like that. Is that acceptable?"

Yashataisho quickly analyzed Nodoka's terms and deemed them acceptable. It had honestly hoped to avoid terminating Nodoka if possible. Doing so would be a near waste of energy and annoy its partner. However, Yashataisho was not about to let Nodoka dictate terms. "The basic terms you have outlined are reasonable Nodoka. There is one term I will add before the deal is complete. You will surrender the Saotome honor blade to me. Sensors indicate that it is capable of channeling vast amounts of high-band bioenergy. No doubt it is an heirloom from one your Yokai ancestors. Such a weapon will be useful to Ranma in keeping him alive should we face more powerful threats."

Nodoka frowned and then held out the blade. "Ranma can have the Bakusaiga. I was planning on giving it to him after he married. However, I don't mind giving it to him now if it will help keep him alive. According to family legend, the sword's true power will be unlocked by a strong swordsman." With that said, Nodoka handed over Bakusaiga by placing it on the ground. She was then transported back to her home by Yashataisho.

* * *

Hinako slowly opened her eyes and was shocked to find herself staring at ceiling lights. "What happened to me?" She then blinked her eyes and yelled out, "Why the hell am I not in my child form?" Waking up in her child form was a constant in Hinako's life. Her body just couldn't keep its ki levels up long enough to wake up as an adult after a full night's sleep.

Suddenly a voice from all around her spoke up. "The Bioenergy Contamination Sickness treatment would have been severely hampered by your constant shape shifting. To preserve your life, it was deemed necessary to fix you to one single form. Your physically mature state was chosen as it had a higher chance of survival during surgery. While your life is no longer in danger, it is advisable for you to avoid strenuous activities as your body is still recovering."

With confusion on her face, Hinako sat up and tried to figure out what was going on. Part of her wished that she had stayed lying down as every muscle in her body ached. The ache was the kind that one has after receiving heavy pain medications and the pain is too much to be completely relieved. Hinako's annoyance at the ache was quickly abated as she realized that she lying on the medical bed nude. "Where are my clothes?"

Yashataisho spoke up again. "Your clothes were removed as they got in the way of your surgery. They were deemed unsalvageable and disposed of why you were being treated. On my partner's orders, new clothes have been made for you." There was a pause as the Umbra ship teleported a folded stack of clothes to the foot of the bed. "These clothes will fit you as they were custom made using part of the biometric data collected on you during the surgery. If the current outfit is not to your liking another one from the wardrobe prepared for you can be summoned."

Eager to be properly dressed, Hinako forced herself to stand up and walked to the pile of clothes. She let out a small gasp of surprise when she looked at the clothes. They were something strait out of a Paris fashion show with actual diamonds and gold thread weaved into them. Hinako nervously put on the clothes while trying to recall how she had ended up in this situation. All she could remember was using her Happōgoensatsu and then feeling absolute agony. What was it that the mysterious voice said she had? Hinako tried to clear her head and called out, "Who are you and where am I?"

In its usual manner Yashataisho spoke up, "I am the Umbra ship Yashataisho. You are currently in my medical facilities as you were brought here by my partner Ranma Saotome. Ranma wanted to make sure you were healed after absorbing his bioenergy and I have the only facilities in this star system to treat BCS."

Once Hinako was dressed she asked, "Ranma brought me here and he has a spaceship?" Hinako wasn't an idiot and knew that Nerima was a strange city. Hell, she was a card carrying member of the strange person club! However, Ranma was in a league all of his own and that was before she found out about his spaceship.

Yashataisho quickly replied, "I have been partnered with Ranma since my creation shortly after his birth. Now that you are awake and properly dressed according to your culture I ask that you follow the blinking lights to where Ranma is waiting. He would like to talk with you for a bit before you are sent home. I would also like to use this time to remind you to never drain my partner again. His bioenergy is toxic to your system and will kill you unless you are sent back to my medical bay or a similarly equipped facility. Also, your own ability to absorb bioenergy will be reduced for the next week as your system recovers."

Hinako tried not to worry about how that would affect her ability to discipline the delinquents at Furinkan as she walked down the corridors of Yashataisho. Soon enough, Hinako came to a crew dining room that had one table set up with a feast. Ranma was leaning against one of the bay window frames on the outer wall with the Earth in the background. He had the Bakusaiga hanging from his belt and a small scowl on his face. The young hybrid was not in the best of moods as he found out about the new contract with his mother that Yashataisho had made an hour ago. Sure Ranma like that he didn't have the seppuku pledge hovering over his head, but he was pissed that his mother had been threatened with death. Ranma looked up and his scowl ended when he saw that Hinako was okay. He then said, "I had my partner prepare a meal since I'm sure you're famished after what happened."

The duo quickly headed to the table and started to demolish the feast. Hinako was a bit surprised at just how hungry she was. However, she really couldn't bring herself to care as she entered the impromptu speed eating contest. Eventually, the two of them slowed down and began to talk about what had happened that day. Both Ranma and Hinako found that they had a lot of similarities and were used to being outside most people's perspective of reality.

Towards the end of the meal, Hinako decided to bring up an important issue for her. "Ranma, what are we going to do at school? I need to enforce the school discipline on everyone and you're outside of my ability to discipline. Furthermore, anyone near you is potentially able to be a delinquent since I wouldn't be able to drain them without draining some of your ki."

Ranma nodded his head in understanding. It would have been all too easy for Hinako to lump him in with the rest of the 'delinquents' if he hadn't been focusing on his bond with Yashataisho. Sure he had been surprised when Hinako first used the Happōgoensatsu, but it hadn't outraged him since the attack didn't permanently harm anyone. Ranma also privately admitted that school had become a lot calmer and more bearable since Hinako started her crackdown. He already had more than enough craziness to deal with in his life. The last thing that Ranma wanted was for there to be more craziness. "Um, how about I have Yashataisho ready to teleport me away whenever you need to drain anyone near me?"

Hinako thought about it and said, "I think that could work as a start."

* * *

Author's notes: If anyone finds the science used to describe what happened to Hinako as erroneous (at least in how I used real science in a fictional setting) I am sorry. Please note that the use of the AT field just a reference to Evangelion, not the start of a crossover.


	4. The Price of Heritage

A week after the Hinako incident, things were back to the new normal for Nerima. Ranma had mostly gotten over his partner's gunboat solution to the seppuku contract and would spend an hour or so each day on his ship for peace. Mousse had practically locked himself away in the Cat Café reading old Amazon law tomes. He claimed that he was on the verge of having an iron-clad way to end Shampoo's 'travesty of a marriage' to Ranma. Just how Mousse thought that could happen no one knew. Cologne thought that Mousse might have had an 'interesting' combination of special herbs, but she wasn't about to stop him. After all, the more time Mousse spent on his fool's errand than the less time he had to bother her granddaughter.

Ranma was currently walking to Furinkan when he stopped in surprise at Doctor Ono's clinic. The closed for sabbatical sign was down unlike it had been for the past few months. "Is the Doc back?" Ranma thought about everything for a few seconds and then decided to enter the clinic. He would have arrived at school early without this detour and Yashataisho could always transport him to Furinkan in a pinch. The clinic's office had a lot of boxes in it and Tofu digging into one of them. A small grin appeared on Ranma's face and he called out, "Hey Doc! It's great to see you again."

Tofu looked up and blinked his eyes in surprise. "Hello Ranma. I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon. How are things going for you?"

With a shrug Ranma replied, "They've been going alright. It turns out that I'm not human. Apparently I'm a hybrid between a Yokai and a Juraian due to a fluke of atavism. I also received a warship from the patron goddesses of the Yokai and Juraians with enough firepower to reduce every planet in the solar system to dust in an hour tops. Other than that everything is just like how it was when you left. So how was your sabbatical?"

Tofu quickly adjusted his glasses to hide his shocked look at Ranma news. The fact that Ranma wasn't human was unsurprising to the doctor. Dr. Ono had already begun to suspect that Ranma had some sort of mystically enhanced bloodline. Simply put, no regular human could get as powerful as Ranma had or recover as quickly as the young man before him repeatedly did. It just wasn't biologically possible. Sure there were statistical anomalies to typical human abilities like Mousse or Shampoo, but they were anomalies due to the eugenics work of the Amazons for 3,000 years. Ryoga didn't inter into equation of baseline humans. It was a little known fact that the poor boy had some jinn blood in his veins due to his distant ancestor Sinbad's tryst with a Jinn Sultana. The Hibiki 'curse' was due to them having enough jinn blood to transport themselves but not enough to control it. Besides the curse and a slight increase in ki, the Hibiki's were normal.

The fact that threw Tofu for a loop was the new warship. Part of him wanted to wonder at anyone's sanity to give a warship to Ranma; especially one as powerful as the young man said his was. But Tofu wasn't about to voice that wonder and risk offending some goddesses. While the young doctor hadn't encountered any divine curses, he had heard of them in fairy tales and myths. That was not something he wanted to risk coming under in any shape or form. "I trust that you know how to use that gift properly Ranma."

"Of course Doc. Yashataisho is more than just a warship. It's my partner and I'm not about to do something stupid with it. Even if I wanted to do something stupid, Yashataisho wouldn't let me since it has its own will. Besides, what kind of crazy thing to you think I could do with an interstellar warship? I mean blowing up or conquering a planet would slap me with so many lawsuits that I'd have to kill myself to get out of all of them."

There was a brief pause as Ranma glanced at the office clock on the walk. He then turned to Tofu and said, "Look Doc, it's great that you're back in town. I would love to stay and chat some more, but I need to get to school. How about I stop by after class today and then we can catch up some more?"

At that moment Doctor Ono started to wonder if he had somehow slipped into the Twilight Zone. Ranma was worried about going to school? Tofu quickly hid his concern and gave Ranma a small smile. "That would be wonderful Ranma. Hope you have a good time at school and I look forward to seeing you this afternoon."

* * *

Once school was over and Ranma had revisited Tofu's office, the young hybrid had himself beamed up to Yashataisho. Ranma always enjoyed being closer to his partner as it filled him with a sense of peace. Besides, being one of only two sentient beings in 100,000 miles was great for insuring he had peace and quiet to study. Not that Ranma liked studying outside of certain subjects; it's just that it was a lot less painful when he could get his homework done and over with a dozen interruptions. Yashataisho had set up a small desk a few feet away from its trunk for Ranma to study at.

For the next two hours, Ranma worked at his desk to complete his homework. There were times that he honestly wanted to throw his pencil down and ask Yashataisho for the answers. Ranma never did because he wasn't a quitter even when he despised things. Besides, he had previously gotten his partner to promise that it wouldn't give him the answers. There wouldn't be any satisfaction in getting a good grade for Ranma if he didn't do it himself.

While Ranma worked on his homework, Yashataisho mused about what its partner was doing. In all honesty, Ranma was being rather foolish about his education. Almost every 'cultured' interstellar society downloaded 'textbook knowledge' into their students' heads. Education for most races focused more on developing critical thinking skills and learning how to appropriately apply the implanted knowledge. Still, Ranma was a native of Earth and would naturally follow their educational methods. It wouldn't really matter if Ranma took an extra few decades to learn everything he'd eventually need to know given how long he'd be alive.

After what seemed like forever, Ranma finished his last math problem completing his homework. Ranma put it and the rest of his homework in a small bin on the desk and pressed a button on the bin's side. The bin lit up for three seconds and then a small slit appeared on another part of the desk. A printout quickly came out of the slit which disappeared once the printout was completed. Ranma picked up the printout and looked at the preliminary results of his homework. After all, there wasn't anything wrong with Yashataisho checking his homework and pointing out that some of his answers were incorrect. Ranma took a quick look at the readout and then put it to the side. Over all he had a good grade. His errors could be corrected later.

With his homework done, Ranma decided to lie down on the grass and try to deal with The Problem. A.k.a, how could he solve the mess his father had made of his future matrimonial state? That Gordian knot was a two-fold problem. One, how would he arrange things to have one valid fiancée and two, how would he keep her alive? With a small sigh Ranma said, "Hey Yashataisho. Have you come up with any solutions to Operation See Mom?"

Yashataisho calmly replied, "I have complied several possible solutions to the problem Ranma. The first is to declare that none of your current fiancées have a valid claim to your hand. Shampoo's claim can be dealt with using the argument that her laws do not apply on foreign soil. Her 'marriage' to you was contracted on Japanese soil using her laws which under Earth international law means it wasn't a valid marriage. Should she choose to reject this interpretation, I can convince the elders of her village otherwise. Your engagements to Akane and Uyko can be declared invalid due to bad faith negotiations. While this is a bit shaky under contract law, bringing up your father's misrepresentation of your marriage prospects and the lack of a written contract would win your case."

Ranma paused to consider what his partner had told him. On the one hand, it would solve the problem of too many fiancées. But on the other, it felt like he was taking the coward's way out of his problem. It also didn't sit well with Ranma because he cared about all three of his fiancées. Sure they gave him hell plenty of times, but there were good times with them as well. Those times made it impossible for Ranma to just kick them to the curb like Yashataisho was suggesting. With a sigh Ranma said, "What other alternative solutions are there?"

With mechanical precision Yashataisho replied, "There exist only three possibilities at under currently specified conditions. The first possibility is that you chose one of your fiancées to be your wife and leave the others to sort out their claim to you with Genma Saotome. Such a plan would most likely require you and your chosen bride to relocate to myself in order to live safely. The second possibility is that you get your fiancées to agree to be part of a harem. While not legal in Japan, there are nations on Earth where this is legal and it could easily be done on another planet. Given the personalities of your fiancées, this option is unlikely to work. The final possibility is that you give your fiancées an ultimatum: they choose between themselves by however they feel necessary to decide which one among them will be your bride. While this option would allow you to marry the culturally acceptable 1 wife without threat of continuing attacks, I also predict a high possibility of your former fiancées being maimed or killed in the selection process."

"I would like to remind you of something as you consider which is of great importance to your future marriage. All of your currently known fiancées are pure-blooded humans which mean that they have a significantly shorter lifespan than you. Even Shampoo, whose people's eugenics practices have created a stronger human subspecies, is unable to undergo some standard age extending treatments. Her lifespan can be extended to at most 600 years with the best galactic treatments she could possibly undergo. Your other fiancées have a much lower potential life expectancy. The only known way to increase any of their lifespan to even over a millennium would be through illegal heavy genetic modification. Such modification is illegal throughout the galaxy due to its extremely high mortality rate."

Ranma sighed and said, "Great, just great. I have the most powerful warship in the universe, a partner with knowledge given to him by two elder goddesses, and I still can't find a solution to my messed up love life that satisfies everyone. Why can't I solve this problem?"

Yashataisho quickly replied, "Perhaps the problem you are facing is that you are looking at this situation with the wrong goals in mind. You wish to resolve your marriage situation so that everyone involved is happy. Besides a wish to correct the dishonor your father has caused by giving your hand away multiple times, you have a driving goal behind solving this problem. That goal is to see your mother again which can only be accomplished by you arriving with your wife. My suggestion is that you focus on acquiring a happy marriage as your primary goal. The happiness of your fiancées and associates becomes a secondary, but expendable goal."

"If you should take my advice, then you should also consider other options besides Akane, Uyko, and Shampoo as brides. For example, you could use one of Akane's outbursts to transfer the Tendo agreement from her to one of her sisters. Kasumi would be my recommendation as she is the most reasonable and caring of the sisters. Her personality would also mesh well for you. As a training bride she would be very useful to you. Hinako would also be a good choice out of your known contacts as her previously unique life state would help her accept the circumstances of your marriage."

Ranma's eyes bulged in shock. "What are you saying Yashataisho? Kasumi is like a sister to me and Hinako is at least a decade older than me. Not to mention that Kasumi already has a suitor and going after Hinako would be against the law. Don't you realize how wrong that is?"

Very quickly the hybrid's partner countered his arguments. "Kasumi is not biologically related to you by any noticeable degree. Even if she was, that is not an impediment to marriage under galactic law. By those laws, it would be perfectly acceptable someone to marry any relative provided they agree to a minor genetic manipulation of their gametes to prevent excessive inbreeding. There is also no legal or honor claim for her as a mate. Dr. Tofu's interest in her does not preclude competition. As for Hinako, her age is not a factor that you should be focusing on. You will live for tens of thousands of years and most of your future companions will likely be centuries if not millennia younger than you as you age. Unless you take a mate from a long lived species such as a Juraian with a Tree Ship, you will typically be the elder in any romantic relationship. Being the junior partner would be a unique experience for you. Also, the law you are referring to only make those actions criminal if she is your teacher which will no longer be the case in a few months. But those two are only examples. I can begin analyzing other women you are acquainted with to see about a possible match. Kasumi or Hinako might have some friends that would prove suitable."

"Why are you trying to get me to abandon my fiancées and go after older women?" This current move of Yashataisho's bothered Ranma. Usually, his partner wouldn't focus so much on alternatives far out of alignment of his basic goal. Perhaps Yashataisho didn't consider his suggestion to be as massively different as Ranma did.

Yashataisho quickly replied, "Within two years you will be biologically an adult with the possibility of this occurring within a year. This is a known fact based on an analysis of your genome. What is not known with 100 percent certainty is which racial characteristics you will express as a mature hybrid or how they will mesh with each other. My concern is based on the fact that certain traits will call for you to be married sooner rather than later."

A chill ran down Ranma's spine when he heard that. Every so often he learned something new about his odd heritage. Most of it was good, but this sounded like it would bite him in the ass. Ranma sighed and said, "Okay partner what are you worried about?"

Blunt as usual, Yashataisho answered Ranma. "Yokai reproduction is based off of a breeding cycle that occurs once every decade and lasts for 10 months. Male yokai experience extreme aggression and desire to mate during the breeding season. During the breeding season, males would kill any rivals they could and then take any females they could force to mate with them. Married yokai focused on their spouses, but need of the males to dominate remained as a wife was expected to kill her husband if he could not force her to breed during this cycle. What humans consider rape and vilify, the Yokai saw as improving their bloodlines. Females were culturally expected and driven biologically to maim or kill males during the breeding season as it assured them that their children's fathers were strong."

"The reason I am telling you this is that there is a 14 percent possibility of you having this cycle. If this is the case than I will need to keep you confined to myself as I am sure you will order me to do. There is an additional 35 percent possibility that you, while not experience a Yokai mating cycle, will experience a greatly increased sexual drive of some sort. If that is the case you will likely not need to lock yourself away. In either case, acquiring access to a woman with whom you can frequently mate is the best way to handle these situations as shown in studies of other races with breeding cycles. Given your attitudes, such a woman would almost have to be your wife as the woman would have a very high probability of becoming pregnant after such a period. All of your fiancées psychiatric profiles show them to be unready to become mothers in the next year or two. Therefore, when given the option to search for potential spouses outside of your three fiancées I heavily weighted my search criteria in favor of more mature women. Once the expression or lack thereof for this particular trait is determined I can adjust my parameters. However, such knowledge will not be acquired until you risk activating that trait."

* * *

Akane currently was in the kitchen working on her curry. Despite rumors to the contrary, Akane had never summoned a demonic horde or created a potent neurotoxin sought out by the local ninja clans. However, it was true that most of Akane's dishes tasted so bad that other people thought she had poisoned them. Akane had been getting better though and the extra culinary class she was taking in school was helping her abilities. Her family thought her cooking was as horrible as ever because usually something happened to rile Akane up while she was cooking at home. When that happened, Akane pretty much forgot everything she had learned about cooking.

That had not happened today. Akane hadn't been bothered by Kuno all week as the village idiot had left on a pilgrimage to prove that Ranma 'didn't know the Will of Heaven'. Akane didn't know or want to know what was going through that moron's head. She was just glad to have some peace. Uyko and Shampoo hadn't been bothering her recently while father and Mr. Saotome were still trying to deal with Ranma and Yashataisho. That meant that the youngest Tendo daughter had been able to relax and make a very good curry. It wasn't at Kasumi's level, Akane knew she wasn't at her oldest sister's level yet, but it was still quite good. Now all she needed to do was have the boys try it and prove to them that she could cook.

With her curry in hand, Akane left the kitchen looking for someone to taste the dish. From the corner of her eye, Akane spotted the telltale flash of Yashataisho's transporter which meant that Ranma was returning home. This was a good thing for her sense Ranma was one of her biggest culinary critics and knowing their fathers' he'd be the one who would have the honor of eating her food. Akane couldn't wait to show Ranma that she could cook. "Hey Ranma, I want you to try this curry I just made."

Ranma was not in a good mood after finding out about the little potential side effect his yokai blood could have on him. The pressure of dealing with the fiancée mess his father had created and his mother's new test of acceptability were tough enough. Adding a possible biological time limit and fatherhood on him just made the young hybrid ready to blow. Akane's request came at the worst possible time for Ranma. He didn't notice that Akane's food smelled good or that she was asking him to try the food. All that registered in Ranma's brain was that Akane wanted him to taste her food which he knew was usually terrible. What made that routine worse was that either the fathers would harp on family honor or Akane would punch him for pointing out that she couldn't cook to save her life.

All the pressures got to be too much for Ranma and he snapped. Ranma grabbed the bowl out of Akane's hands and chucked the dish straight into the waste bin. He then growled out, "I don't have time for this nonsense Akane. Everyone knows you can't cook so why are you trying to prove them right again by poisoning me? I don't have time for games like this!"

Akane stared at Ranma in shock as he brutally disregarded all of her hard work. Tears started to form in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. Anger started to swell up inside of Akane and she tried to slap Ranma. Tried was the operative word, as Ranma's key immediately created a force field to protect him. Akane bit her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain as she cradled her hand. As Akane cradled her hand her slightly infamous temper flared up and she yelled out, "I wish you had never come here you inhuman freak!" With that said, Akane ran to her room to try and deal with the pain.

While Akane ran crying to her room, Ranma stood still and his face had such a look of shock and horror that one would almost think he had been shot. Akane thought he was a freak? Sure, she had basically said that back when they first met. However, Ranma figured that it was just because she wasn't used to the curse. He hadn't been used to it either back then, but he had mostly gotten over it. Why hadn't she? Did she think that he was a freak just because he wasn't human? Ranma stood where he was trying to figure out what Akane's problem was and why she was so hostile to him in vain.

Yashataisho, through its key, monitored the entire incident between its partner and Akane. A brief scan of the curry as Ranma threw it away showed the Umbra Ship that it would have been enjoyable to its partner. That information and its inbuilt knowledge of sentient relationships made the whole situation clear to it. Stress, tempers, and misunderstandings had created a potentially massive rift in the duo's relationship. If not repaired soon, the rift could grow to a point where the Tendo-Saotome pairing between the two would be impossible.

This left the starship in a conundrum. On the one branch, it could easily explain what had happened to Ranma. With that knowledge and a little, actually Yashataisho was sure it would have to write a speech for Ranma, help the duo could return their relationship to normal or perhaps improve it. On the other branch, staying silent would likely lead to the rift growing wider until even the fathers would decide that Ranma and Akane were not a good match. What should it do? Yashataisho knew that Ranma would want him to give advice to mend the situation as his honor would demand no less. But, this created an oppertunity to get rid of Akane from Ranma's love life. What should it do what should it do?

In this dilemma, a hidden subroutine that Tsunami placed in all her children activated. This was the partner breeding subroutine which Tsunami used excessively in her manipulation of the Juraian noble bloodlines. Using the subroutine she could order her children to alter their partner's pheromones to make certain mates attractive, encourage the expression of certain traits in a partner's gametes, an even minutely improve an offspring while in a woman's womb. Tsunami had certain limits built into the program and her own moral code. She would never force two people to breed together. Quietly encourage them to get together yes; with her children it was easy to help arranged two Juraians to fall in love.

The subroutine brought Ranma's situation to the fragment of Tsunami's intellect running her breeding program. Tsunami considered the issue very carefully because Ranma had become a very important X-factor in her program. At first she had considered Ranma to be an unusual and potentially useful anomaly. The anomalies free will introduced into her breeding program and their benefits were another reason why Tsunami never forced a pairing. Funaho was a great example as she was a very powerful human of Juraian legacy with regular human mutation mixed in. The birth of Yosho and his line had potentially shortened her program by generations. Tenchi was currently her leading contender in producing a supreme deity, but she needed alternatives. Ranma and the surprisingly powerful mix of traits he carried was a viable alternative.

Not that Ranma could be a supreme deity, that was an impossibility no if, ands, or buts about it. However, he could father or be the grandfather of a supreme deity if bred correctly. If Ranma had been Juraian raised, that wouldn't be too much of a problem for Tsunami. Unfortunately, Ranma had the endearingly frustrating trait of staunchly being a one woman man. How Ranma picked up that trait with Genma and Nodoka as parents even Tsunami couldn't figure out. Perhaps he'd outgrow it in a few thousand years, but in the meantime Tsunami had to work with what she had. Tsunami pulled up a complete analysis of all the women promised to Ranma trying to find a workable pairing that lined up easily with Ranma's honor.

Seconds later Tsunami shook her head in dismay. None of the women were acceptable to her for her purposes. Some like Shampoo had potentially useful traits; in fact, Tsunami flagged the Amazon Nation for further study, while others were utterly mundane. The mundane ones were worthless or potentially harmful to her project and the ones with useful traits would do the most good if introduced into the minor nobility. Akane and the rest of the Tendos were in the mundane category which made Tsunami's decision easy. Yashataisho was to do everything it could to encourage Ranma away from his fiancees.

Tsunami watched as Yashataisho remained silent and let a tear drop as she watched Ranma stand in the Tendo hall in pain. She consoled herself with the fact that this break should be over quickly so Ranma would soon get over the pain. He was a very resilient young man. Tsunami immediately focused that fragment of herself to work on finding a suitable wife for Ranma. It was imperative that she repay Ranma for what she was taking from him even though she was a goddess. For a nanosecond Tsunami considered taking Ranma for herself. She quickly rejected it as her blood could ruin everything. There were several women who would suit Tsunami's purposes and could make Ranma quite happy. Now the only question was who to select and how to arrange their meeting?

* * *

Later that night at the Tendo household, everyone besides Akane was gathered at the dinner table for supper. Kasumi brought the last plate for supper in from the kitchen and then frowned. "Father, where is Akane?"

Mr. Tendo blinked his eyes and then realized that Akane wasn't at the table. "I don't know Kasumi. The last I saw Akane was when she came home today after school. Did anyone see her after that?"

Ranma was still steamed at Akane's comment to him, but a small part of him was worried about the tomboy. He grudgingly said, "I saw her a couple of hours ago when she tried to force me to eat her cooking-"

Both fathers immediately cut Ranma off, "WHY DIDN'T YOU EAT AKANE'S COOKING?! IT'S YOUR DUITY AS HER FIANCE TO EAT WHAT SHE WORKED SO HARD TO PREPARE FOR YOU!"

The embers of Ranma's temper flared up and he growled out at the fathers. "Don't talk to me like that! Both of you know that Akane can't cook to save her life and I refuse to sooth her overinflated ego because you two don't want the princess to deal with REAL LIFE. I am sick and tired of you two always taking her side on any and every issue."

Genma figured that his influence on Ranma was near the breaking point. Ever since Yashataisho had appeared, Ranma had been paying more and more attention to that accursed ship's advice and less to his. Genma sensed that Yashataisho's goals were not his own and likely against what he wanted. "Boy you need to learn your place! Soun and I have far more experience in life than you so you should listen to what we have to say. If we say you are wrong than you are wrong. If we say Akane is correct than she is correct!"

Soun nodded his head and harped on without paying the slightest bit of attention to Ranma's growing aura of rage. "That's right my boy. It is your duty to respect and obey your elders since we know the best solution to any problem." Soun closed his eyes and tried to create an image of a serene sage. Because his eyes were close, Soun never noticed Kasumi and Nabiki backing out of the room.

Ranma's temper flared higher as his inhuman blood simmered. Yokai were practically hardwired to force anyone weaker than them into subservience. Juraians were well noted in the galaxy as a stubborn race with a penchant for family quarreling. Add Ranma's current anger problems and the fact that he had no respect for the duo as fighters, with almost none for them as men given their cowardly nature, made the situation more explosive. The Bakusaiga pulsed at Ranma's growing power as it sensed a fight was on the horizon.

"Enough," Ranma coldly said as he desperately applied the soul of ice to remain calm. "I have had it with you two always trying to boss me around. I refuse to cower before you two and do your dirty work. Every time something goes wrong, you two weasel your way out of responsibility and stick me with the job of cleaning up the problem. I don't have time to do that anymore! From now on, you will leave me alone and take care of yourselves."

Both men realized their control of the situation was nearly nonexistent. Genma tried his most desperate card to win this contest of wills. "Ranma you will do as you're told or you won't be allowed in this house anymore." The elder Saotome was certain that this would get his son to toe the party line. Sure Ranma had great wilderness survival skills, but the key word was wilderness. Genma was sure that Ranma would have to come crawling back within a week if he tried to live out on the streets of the city.

Yashataisho sensed the stress getting to Ranma and realized this was a golden opportunity for it to complete Tsunami's orders. It quickly sent a burst of information to Ranma which caused Ranma to grin confidently at the fathers. "I don't need you." The fathers looked at Ranma in horror as a victory smirk appeared on Ranma's face. "There is nothing I need from you. Do you think I'm worried about a roof over my head or food or clothes? My partner can supply me with all of that. Perhaps you think you can play the legal guardian card. No dice as there are thousands of worlds I can go to and become emancipated." With that said, Ranma told Yashataisho to beam him up and he vanished from Earth is a flash of light.

* * *

Author's Notes: I want to explain a few things before people start shouting about OOC. Tsunami isn't being cruel or uncaring about Ranma or the Juraians with her breeding project. She is acting like an animal breeder trying to get the most favorable traits she can out of her stock. I've helped to do this with finches and let's face it, a deity is as above humans as we are above 'livestock' animals. You care for the animals, but you still want them to do certain things. As for Ranma blowing up at Akane and then leaving the Tendo's, that is quite simple. He has been having a very bad day and making snap decisions because of his anger. Will he regret them? That is pretty much assured once he can calm down. However, that doesn't mean that he can walk back across the bridges he's set on fire. For those of you who are curious, this story's timeline is currently at the Ryugenzawa story arc in relation to the Manga.


	5. Dealing with one's actions

Ranma woke up the next morning on the emperor sized bed that Yashataisho had built for him. He gave a small yawn and then stretched for a second. Privately, Ranma had to admit that he had just had his best night's rest in his life. Yashataisho had created the bed so that it was just perfect for Ranma. Once Ranma was up he blinked his eyes trying to remember where he was. Seconds later all the memories of last night's events came flooding back to him. He then slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Oh man, what the hell was I thinking?"

Yashataisho quickly responded. "You were thinking in a heightened emotional state last evening partner. Your actions were a bit hasty and complicated your current situation in the near term. However, I would have to say that things went as well as they could with the situation last night. There would have been an increasing probability of you terminating your father had you remained at the Tendo dojo in that situation."

All the blood drained from Ranma's face when he heard his partner say that. There was a shake in Ranma's voice as he asked, "I would have killed Pops?"

In its usual mechanical tone Yashataisho replied, "The possibility would have grown the longer you stayed at dojo given your emotional state and your father's actions. You are biologically predisposed for violently aggressive action towards those who you view as weak or especially those who do not have your respect. This predisposition is typically kept in check by your mind due to your upbringing and moral values. However, that control was slipping last night due to the mental stress you had over discovering your potential reproduction cycle and the earlier confrontation with Akane. During your confrontation, your brain chemistry was shifting towards a combat state and your bioenergy was moving towards a more active state indicative of combat. You are physically superior to your father by a very significant amount and your father was not bracing himself for combat. In short, there was a distinct possibility of patricide occurring."

This information hit Ranma like a wrecking ball causing him to slump down back onto the bed. His mind was racing at the speed of light trying to make sense of everything he had been told. "Does this mean I'm a danger to everyone?" Ranma quietly asked himself.

"Negative partner," Yashataisho quickly spoke up. "You are predisposed towards aggressive action only towards those you see as enemies. Even in this, you only have a predisposition or a heightened instinctive reaction to look at it from another angle. As a sentient being you are fully capable of controlling your instinctive reactions. While your instincts and emotions are far higher than a human's, your willpower is also stronger than a human's. Please note your abilities for most of your life to work with aggravating and often hostile personnel without a noticeable possibility of taking lethal action. With biological maturity you will have an easier time controlling these instinctive reactions. You are no more of a danger to other beings than any other highly trained martial artist."

Ranma let out a deep breath releasing a great deal of tension. Knowing that he had control of himself was a very good thing for the young hybrid. He had come to value personal control of himself ever since he lost control of his own form thanks to Jusenkyo. The SNAFU over who was to be his future wife made the young hybrid desire control over himself even more. It also was a survival mechanism given what a stray brush could start.

With that fear quelled, Ranma got off of the bed and stripped off his pajamas. He walked over to the nearby pond and leapt into the bathing pool. It was wonderful to be able to go swimming and still be a guy. The bathing pool was three times the size of an Olympic swimming pool and always kept warm enough to avoid triggering the curse. Ranma did a couple of laps around the pool and then swam into a shallow area to actually bathe. Once he was done with the bath, the young hybrid got onto the shore and used his ki to dry off. Yashataisho transported some fresh clothes which were promptly put on.

Hygiene taken care of, Ranma turned his mind to slightly less immediate concerns. What was he going to do now? Did he stay up here on Yashataisho or should he try and patch things up with Pops and the Tendos? If he stayed, what would that do to the precarious balancing act that was his life in Nerima? If he patched things up, what would prevent a situation like last night happening again? Could he handle either situation without backing himself up into another flee or kill situation? "What am I going to do?"

Yashataisho quickly spoke up, "Whatever it is you wish to do Ranma. Between me and yourself you have almost no threats in the known galaxy. I have mined several asteroids during the times you don't need me acquiring a reasonable reserve of valuable resources. It's only a small sum in galactic economic terms; it's barely 20 trillion yen at current Earth market value without factoring in a depression in commodity prices. Still, it's enough that you could enroll in a good school such as the Juraian Noble Prep School and the Royal Juraian University while still having some money left over for a comfortable lifestyle if invested wisely."

Ranma nearly fainted from shock when he heard Yashataisho say that. For almost a minute, he stood like a gapping fish trying to wrap his head around possessing such a fortune and that being considered a 'small sum'. "What? How can you be so calm about that kind of money Yashataisho?"

"Partner, you have not put much effort into learning about the galaxy outside of one small island on a rather insignificant planet in the galactic backwater. I know that you are extremely young and you are attached to your homeland so I have not said anything before. There were many more important things for you to learn about and this could wait until you had grown bored or found it too painful to live on Earth. Unless you wish to know more I will not speak on this issue for now. All you need to know is that there are currently 17 billion billionaires known in the galaxy not including pirates and other criminals. They are billionaires using the Juraian Mon which is the galactic standard for currency and has a purchasing power equivalence to 800 yen per 1 mon. That puts the value of my reserves at 25 billion mons and the average value of billionaires in the galaxy is 79.45 billion mons. You are still in the top twenty percent of the galactic population in terms of wealth, but still unremarkable."

"However, this does show that you are simply not ready for living off of Earth at the moment. Perhaps in a few years, if you work galactic cultural studies into your education, we can think about off-world education. For now I think it would be best if you made me your primary residence while continuing your regular routine as unaltered as possible. If anyone questions you about this you could say that your father's pushing was starting to bring up your killing instincts. That should get your fiancées off of your case as they will not wish to upset you. The choice to follow this idea rests with you and I will help you no matter what you chose."

Ranma closed his eyes and sait down in the grass. "I'll think about it Yashataisho. I promise I'll figure out what I'll do before I leave or have my next meal." Just as Ranma said he would, he just stayed on Yashataisho trying to make up his mind about his situation. It wasn't until 4 PM that Ranma made up his mind and had a late lunch.

* * *

A strange and frightening calm settled on Nerima. Everyone who was even remotely connected to the weirdness that was Ranma Saotome was walking on eggshells. Between Ranma's sudden evacuation of the Tendo Dojo and Akane's disappearance everyone was waiting for something to happen. Hurried whispers were being passed back and forth between the students at Furinkan and the neighborhood's busybodies in speculation over what had happened. Had Akane been kidnapped again? Perhaps Ranma had broken the Tendo pact and Akane was hiding herself in shame?

There were more than a hundred different theories floating around as to what had happen and scant information to base it on. Unlike other "Wrecking Situations", as some people called the antics around Ranma, only the Tendos and Saotomes were around when these problems started. Nabiki was being mysteriously tight lipped over the events of that night. Nabiki's silence was driven by her fear of what she saw in Ranma's eyes that night and the hope that he would just vanish from her life. She hoped that all of the suspicion and tension would help drive Ranma further away.

Luckily, the calm didn't end with a massive explosion like Ranma feared it would. The end was much more gradual and started with Kasumi waiting outside Furinkan for the school day to end. She spotted Ranma as he walked out of the school to head to his usual teleportation spot. As soon as Kasumi spotted Ranma she called out, "Ranma can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ranma stopped in mid step when he heard Kasumi speak to him. Part of the hybrid wanted to bolt as he instinctively knew that Kasumi's presence had something to do with Akane. But on the other hand, Ranma never really could say no to Kasumi since she only made reasonable requests from him. So with a bit of reluctance Ranma walked over to the eldest Tendo sister and said, "Sure Kasumi. What do you need to talk about?"

A small worried look appeared on Kasumi's face as she spoke. "Ranma, I know that you're still a little upset over the events of that evening and I wouldn't be asking you this if I had any other option left to check. Have you heard anything at all from Akane? No one at home has seen her at all for the past week and she hasn't said anything to her friends."

Part of Ranma was annoyed at having Akane brought up as he was still trying to get over what had happened with her. His feelings for her were complicated to say the least. Yashataisho had been coaching him and helping him deal with the pain. According to Yashataisho, his relationship with Akane was a clear case of two teenagers being pushed into a relationship too fast for their own good and without suitable family support. The two of them could have been in a happy relationship if everyone had just backed off and let things progress naturally. However, that hadn't happened and too many events had occurred that soured their chances of having a happy relationship. From the various sources Yashataisho could pull together, Ranma's best option for happiness was to accept the pain caused by his 'relationship' with Akane and use it as a learning experience to have a better relationship in the future with someone else.

Still, a part of Ranma was worried about Akane. He figured that the tomboy would have contacted her sisters after a day or two of her temper tantrum. It was concerning that she hadn't call her sisters yet. "No Kasumi, I've heard nothing from Akane since she tried to get me to eat her cooking on that day."

That news caused Kasumi's worried but still hopeful face to fall into barely concealed terror. "You haven't heard from Akane at all? Oh no, where could she be? She should have at least contacted someone over where she is at. I've told her a hundred times that she has to call if she stays away longer than a day. What are we going to do? What if Akane's in over her head on a big adventure? Ranma, could you please look for her? I know that this won't be very convenient for you. However, you're the only one I know that can find Akane and protect her if she is in a big adventure. If you don't want to bring her back I'll understand. It's just that I would be extremely grateful to you if you could tell me that she's safe."

Ranma immediately felt like an icicle dagger had been driven into his back. He hated seeing the look of pain and terror on Kasumi's face. The fact that he was also worried about Akane made Kasumi's look even more painful. "Look Kasumi," Ranma nervously said, "I'll see what I can do about looking for her. If I hear or find anything I'll let you know."

Kasumi shockingly grabbed Ranma into a hug for a few moments. She then pulled back from the hug with a blush on her face. "Thank you for this Ranma." Kasumi whispered with a happier tone. "I know with you on the case that Akane will turn up safe and sound." She then gave Ranma a small bow and walked away.

* * *

The next day, Ranma was beamed into the edges of Ryugenzawa. It had been a very simple task for Yashataisho to locate Akane since he had her bioenergy signature in its memory banks. If Yashataisho's key hadn't picked up her signature during Ranma's time at the dojo then the search would be a very different story. Ranma had himself beamed down about half a kilometer from Akane's location so he could spot her without being seen. Like a real ninja, he jumped into the trees and stealthily approached her location. He carefully brushed aside some leaves to get a good look at Akane's location.

Akane was sitting in a small clearing with a young man about her age who was holding a push broom. It looked like the two of them were having a picnic lunch. Ranma then heard Akane speak. "Shinnosuke, would you like some more udon?"

Shinnosuke nodded his head and replied, "Thank you very much Akane. What is it that we are supposed to do after lunch again?"

To Ranma's surprise, Akane just let out a small sigh. She smiled at Shinnosuke and replied, "Try to remember Shinnosuke. We're supposed to repair the traps on the northeast side of the forest after lunch. Now enjoy your meal."

Ranma silently watched at the duo had their lunch feeling more and more like an interloper every passing minute. However, he also felt a rage and envy as he watched Akane's and Shinnosuke's interactions. His former fiancée was far more caring and understanding with this idiot than she ever was with him. Sure he didn't know much about modern pop culture, but at least he could remember her name! Did she hate his curse and abilities that much that she couldn't even deal civilly with him as she could with a retard?

About a half hour after Ranma discreetly crashed the duo's picnic lunch, Akane and Shinnosuke left to go work on the traps Akane had mentioned. Ranma waited an additional ten minutes in the tree to try and get control of his rage. Once he was calmed down enough he jumped down into the clearing to investigate the nearby trash bin. He held his hand over the trash bin and said, "Is there anything unusual in the food partner?" Given his experience with potions, Ranma wanted to make sure that Akane wasn't under the effects of anything. Ranma doubted that anyone would want to put Akane under a potion, but it didn't hurt to be through.

Five seconds later Yashataisho spoke. "Analysis is complete partner. There are no substances with mind altering capabilities in the trash container. Also, an analysis of the duo's biosigns shows no sign of mind control. Akane Tendo is in good health. However, her companion is in terminal condition."

Ranma eyes widened in shock and self-loathing rushed over him like a tidal wave. Here he was pissed off that Akane was being friendly with a dying teen. How much lower could you get than that? "That Shinnosuke kid is dying? Why?"

Yashataisho promptly explained. "The teen named Shinnosuke has wounds in his A.T. field. As you know from Hinako, the A.T. field keeps a person's bioenergy contained while protecting them from foreign energy. Such wounds result in a person losing their own energy while starting to suffer low levels of Bioenergy Contamination Sickness. The low level BCS appears to be responsible for the teen's memory retention issues. Shinnosuke's wounds are quite old which is very unusual as most sufferers with A.T. field wounds like he has die in a few days or weeks if not medically treated. I am attempting to determine why he is not dead."

There was silence for several minutes as Yashataisho analyzed this unusual situation. Ranma was just about to speak to his partner when it had the answer. "I had surveyed the landscape and have discovered why Shinnosuke is not dead. It appears that there are several trees in the region that are distantly descended from Juraian Treeships. Most likely they are from a rare successful hybrid that was introduced into the region prior to Empire's founding. These trees are producing a weak variant of the Water of Life which is entering one of the local streams. Shinnosuke is using this water as a patch on his A.T. field. Regular ingestion of this water is necessary for him to stay alive as this variant cannot repair his A.T. field."

Very quickly Ranma considered what his partner told him. After a few seconds he said, "Can you heal the Shinnosuke's A.T. field and if so how much time would it take?" Not even his residual jealousy over Akane's affection could stop Ranma from wanting to help the young man.

Yashataisho quickly considered its partner's request. "His A.T. field can be healed with my medical facilities. Full repair of his A.T. field would take three days of constant surveillance and care. However, I infer that you wish to do this without drawing attention to your actions. If this is so, I can treat Shinnosuke in less obvious manner. I can trigger his A.T. field to start growing again with just a three hour procedure. This procedure is an old one that is typically reserved for very minor A.T. field wounds do to the time it takes to close them. With the modified Water of Life, I estimate it would take Shinnosuke 2 to 3 weeks to fully heal with this method. As the treatment progresses, his mental damage will be healed."

"Please note partner that there are physiological impacts depending on which method of treatment you wish to adopt. Having your role known with the first method will create a sense of debt on Shinnosuke's part to you. The impact on Akane is unpredictable, but the most likely outcomes are rage to you, a sense of gratitude, and potentially a feeling that she should return to you. Keeping your involvement silent will likely cause the duo to think that their meeting started the cure. Such feelings would cause an increase in the likelihood of them starting a romantic relationship. I will tell you my opinion on which course you should take if you wish. However, I feel that this is a decision you should make without relying on my opinion."

Ranma leaned against a nearby tree and sighed. "Why don't you want me to have your opinion? Besides, why would you withhold your opinion if you told me all of that?"

"Partner, I have noticed that you exercise little critical thinking and assertion when it comes to non-combative decision making. Before you became aware of me you relied on your father for such decisions. As a child that was a reasonable decision, but it got you into trouble as your many problems in Nerima show. Since you became aware of me you have started to rely on me to make your decisions for you. Thankfully you have at least considered the situation before adopting most of my suggestions. However, you must not rely on me to do your thinking for you. There will come times when my calculation will be incorrect or our linked might be blocked. In the end Ranma you must be able to think for yourself."

Ranma nodded his head and agreed with what his partner told him. The young hybrid considered what he was told and then said, "Keep our involvement secret. Now get me back to you and then give Kasumi a call. She needs to know that Akane is safe." There was no reason for him to enter into Akane's life again. It would just be too painful. Better to leave them at a clean break and help her start a new relationship. Hopefully, this one would work out for her.

* * *

For the next week, chaos reigned in Nerima once the news that Akane was transferring to another school hit the students of Furinkan High. Ranma didn't know why Akane was transferring, but he had a strong suspicion that the transfer had something to do with Shinnosuke. She probably had to use the little princess routine to get her father to agree to it. His father had tried to talk to him soon after the news broke. No doubt the panda wanted Ranma to either bring Akane back or transfer the engagement to one of her sisters. However, Ranma couldn't be sure since he had Yashataisho transport his dad to the Altay Mountains near Kazakhstan. He figured it would be a month or two if he was lucky before Genma returned.

There were whispers in school that he had done something terrible to drive Akane away. Perhaps in a way those rumors were correct. Ranma had told Akane the truth about her abilities and had helped Shinnosuke. Personally, he didn't consider either of those to be something terrible. Luckily for him most of the students dismissed those rumors. Kuno could have been a problem if Ranma hadn't thought ahead. Just before the news hit big time, he had Yashataisho call the Kuno Mansion. The umbra ship scrambled Ranma's voice and he called as 'a concerned party' to tell Kuno that Akane was staying in another town with a young man.

It was all so simple after that. Kuno no longer believed that Ranma was a foul sorcerer. Oh no, the REAL foul sorcerer was this mysterious person who had finally summoned Akane to his dark lair. According to the latest recon in Kuno land Ranma was now a divine messenger sent to help protect Akane from this foul sorcerer. Those fights between the two of them were caused by him taking the sorcerer's curses that otherwise would have hit Kuno. Akane's sudden disappearance was due to the sorcerer fearing Kuno's growing power. Naturally this only made sense to Kuno, but Ranma was relieved to not have to deal with that fool.

At the moment Ranma was sitting in a booth at the Cat Café having lunch. His face was dead serious as he once again tried to think about his marriage situation. With Akane now out of the running he only had to deal with Shampoo and Ukyo competing for his hand. You'd think that having only two fiancées instead of three would make things simpler. It didn't make things simpler at all. On the one hand, Ukyo was his childhood friend and would listen to him. But, she would insist that he do things her way and that he shift his dreams to work around hers. On the other hand, Shampoo was a very friendly and beautiful young woman who didn't mind him pursuing his own dreams. But, she had already made it clear that any children of theirs would grow up as amazons and she wasn't above using the occasional potion to get her way. With both Shampoo and Ukyo Ranma felt corralled and he hated it.

That wasn't even considering the elephant in the room of any relationship he could end up in: his lifespan. How was he supposed to have a happy relationship with someone if they'd die in the metaphorical blink of an eye? That question had been gnawing at Ranma's brain ever since he had become aware of it. Cologne was the only one he knew of that could possibly answer the question. It was why he chose to have lunch at the Cat café today so he could get some answers. He just hadn't worked up the courage to ask the old ghoul the question yet.

Finally Ranma could delay things no longer as Cologne started walking towards him. "What's bothering you Son-in-Law?"

Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin since he didn't notice her presence and said, "Don't call me that! Besides, you nearly scared a year off of my life."

Cologne let out a small chuckle and replied, "From what I hear that's next to nothing for you. Now Son-in-Law, why have you come here in such a serious mood? If you were looking to flinch a free meal you'd be more jovial and near the counter where Shampoo's working. Since you're not doing that, I am forced to assume that you have an issue to bring up with me. Now, let's stop playing games and how about you just tell me what bugging you. Is it a new rival or perhaps another curse?"

A sarcastic smirk appeared on Ranma's face for a few seconds before he turned solemn. "Yah I suppose I've got another curse to deal with. I'm not sure if you've heard it or not Old Ghoul, but I'm expected to live longer than human civilization and still stay young. Do you have any advice for someone who's going to outlive everyone they ever know if they don't get themselves killed?"

Cologne nodded her head and sat down next to Ranma. She sighed and said, "Ever since that incident with the Musk was over I've been expecting you to come here asking me about this issue. Oh come now Son-in-Law; don't be so surprised at this. Your father's master and I are the only two people you know of that could hope to give you some perspective on this matter. Of the two of us you would most likely come to me for help. After all, I have been less of a problem for you and I have helped you out from time to time. He would most likely just cause problems and insist on seeing your female curse."

Ranma let out a snort when he heard that from Cologne. "There's no way that I'd do that for the Old Perv. So can you help me out?"

"Of course Son-in-Law, I'd be glad to help you out on this issue. To deal with the burdens of long life there are three things you must know and hold dear. The first and most important item for having a successful long life is to have one or more ongoing goals. For instance, I work to see that my descendants have happy lives and that my people remain safe. I've heard that there is a priest who has been living here in Japan for nearly 700 years tending a shrine and making sure that a demon sealed by a heavenly warrior never escapes. As you can see, tasks like these provide an ongoing purpose to one's existence. Having such a purpose makes the passage of time easier to bare."

"The second thing you must know is how to treasure things as they happen. Friendships, relationships, and love ones pass away. But, you must enjoy them to the fullest while you have them. Think about the cherry blossoms that you Japanese love to write about in your poems. They only last for a few days, but you treasure them while they are around. I loved my husband and still think back fondly to the times when he was alive. If you can do that, you will have a long life full of joy."

"Finally Son-in-Law, the most painful thing you must know is how to let go of things when they pass. This isn't something that one can truly prepare themselves for before they experience such a painful loss. Truth be told I was a mess for years after my husband died. You must be willing to let go of what you love if you are to keep the joy of it. It is all too easy to let yourself get trapped by the pain of losing someone that you cannot see the good times ahead. My long life carries me ever farther away from my birth sisters and my husband, but it allowed me to see my great-granddaughter grow into a lovely young woman. Some people just don't have the strength to deal with it and they let themselves die. I don't see you as one of those people."

A small smile appeared on Ranma's face when he heard that. "Thanks for the advice Cologne; I really needed to hear that."

"You're welcome Son-in-Law. I'm always willing to help family."

Just before Ranma could retort the son-in-law name, Mousse ran into the Café shouting at the top of his lungs. "Yes, yes, yes, oh this is a glorious day! My beloved Shampoo is free of that cursed Saotome!"

Cologne, Shampoo, and Ranma all started walking towards Mousse. Shampoo was clearly showing her annoyance on her face while holding a stack of used dishes on a tray. She than barked out, "What are you going on about now?"

Mousse turned to face Shampoo since he was wearing his glasses and quickly replied, "This is what brings me my joy my dear. This letter is from the Elder Council replying to the findings I sent them two weeks ago. You're now free of Saotome."

"Let me see that letter you blind fool!" Cologne quickly grabbed the letter from Mousse and began to read it. Her eyes turned red with rage as she leaped onto the hidden weapons master and started to choke him. "What lies have you been spreading for this travesty to occur? Speak quickly or I'll ring you lying neck out and we'll have roasted duck for tonight's special!"

Ranma wasn't able to make sense of what was going on in front of him. He spotted the letter Mousse had come in with lying on the floor. Cologne dropped it in her eagerness to kill the myopic fighter. The young hybrid quickly grabbed it and started reading. It was from the Elder Council of the Amazons announcing that his marriage to Shampoo had been annulled.


	6. Pain of Laws and Promises

Mousse gulped as he looked at Cologne who was a hair's breath away from making good on her threat. He then hurriedly started talking. "It is because of Elder Mulan's Law that was made shortly after our people's arrival in the homelands. The law states that the Musk and the Phoenix Tribe are exempted from the Kiss of Marriage and the Kiss of Death. Furthermore, no person of either lineage is allowed to join the tribe unless they are at least four generations from the last ancestor to demonstrate Musk or Phoenix traits."

Ranma shook his head in disbelief. "Uh Mousse, I hate to break it to you but I'm not a Musk or a member of the Phoenix Tribe. Hell, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Phoenix Tribe until now."

Apparently, Cologne wasn't impressed by Mousse mentioning that law either. "Shampoo, please be a dear and get the duck sauce. Don't worry because I'll get the council's facts straight once we deal with this myopic moronic liar." A vicious grin appeared on Shampoo's face as she left to get the duck sauce. Not that she'd actually eat the idiot, but it worked as a great scare tactic and a bit of mental torture.

Luckily, Mousse bought the little act and hurriedly continued. "Elder Mulan's Law doesn't just apply to the Musk and the Phoenix!" That caused Shampoo, Cologne, and Ranma to look at him in confusion. Mousse took a nervous breath and then explained. "Elder Mulan's Law has been ruled by the Elder courts to apply to anyone without a pure human background. There was a revision to that law 2400 years ago after the Zan, Armis, and Gun clans started having serious birth defects among newborn members. It was noted that all of the people with the defects were the grandchildren or great grandchildren of people with a non-human ancestor."

Yashataisho quickly started to explain things to Ranma in the young hybrid's mind. 'Not all hybrids benefit from their mixed heritages like you do partner. Hybrid depression is the term used to describe when such an offspring is weaker than either of its parents. Such problems can easily occur without modern medicine or very careful breeding. The fact that the Amazons have a relatively limited gene pool makes an increase in potential problems when breeding outside their community. It also means that any genetic problems brought in by the new blood can show up quickly and more severely.'

The umbra ship's explanation was quick enough that Ranma could continue following Mousse's speech without losing his place. "The last case was 1300 years ago when the warrior Xena challenged Lu Ban, a younger son of the nearby Chinese governor, so she could be his wife. It turned out that Lu Ban's mother was a kitsune. When that fact was discovered, Xena was ordered by the Elders of her time to renounce her husband and their two daughters. She refused and was removed from the tribe. Her great-great grandchildren were eventually allowed to rejoin the tribe."

Cologne frowned and hopped off of Mousse to go look at her complete law book. Normally this version of the law book wasn't used because it had every single law of the Amazons still active written down. Most of the time the law handbook was used because that book had the laws typically brought up in court written down. The complete law book was actually bigger than Cologne, but she nimbly got it off the shelf and set it on the table. Cologne looked through the appendix for a minute until she found where the law was in the book. She then flipped to the appropriate page and began to read through the law and its applications.

Everyone saw the Amazon elder visibly slump in shock and defeat. Ranma quietly noticed that a tear had fallen from Cologne and hit the law book. Shampoo looked on in confusion while Mousse looked on in victory. Cologne's posture then shifted to a neutral position as she turned around to face the trio. "It seems that Mousse is correct great-granddaughter. Ranma Saotome is not eligible to be your husband due to his non-human status." She then turned to Ranma and said, "On behalf of the Amazonian people I formally apologize for any inconvenience our intrusion into your life has caused. We were acting on the best information we had at the time. It is my hope that you will be willing to become an ally of the Amazons."

Ranma blinked his eyes in shock at Cologne's sudden change in attitude. Why was she being so formal all of a sudden? Was it part of their laws dealing with this issue? In all honesty he was still trying to wrap his mind around no longer being 'married' to Shampoo. Sure their marriage was headache for him and Shampoo had caused some major aggravations for him. But, she was also a great young woman who would defiantly be near or at the top of his want-to-date list if he was a regular teenager without this fiancée mess.

Before Ranma could say anything, Shampoo let out a howl of anguish. Shampoo grabbed Mousse and yelled out in rage while tears flowed from her eyes. "I hate you Mousse and I wish you would burn in Hell!" The young Amazonian threw Mousse into a shelf of glass jars and then ran out of the Cat Café crying.

Cologne hopped over to Mousse to help keep him alive. She looked up at Ranma for a second and then yelled, "Go after her Ranma. I need to keep Mr. Part-time alive and you're the only one that can help Shampoo right now with the pain she's in." There was a look of certainty and concern in the elder's eyes that made Ranma rush out the door to find Shampoo. Cologne sighed and then got to work carefully removing the glass shards from Mousse's body and using her ki to cauterize the wounds. With great deal of disgust Cologne muttered, "You are such a blind self-centered fool Mousse."

Following Shampoo was both extremely easy and extremely difficult. It was easy because Shampoo tore through everything and anything that was in her path. People were shoved out of the way, cars were torn in two, and walls were shattered. The difficulty came in with the sheer chaos Shampoo caused and the incredible speed at which she rampaged in anguish. For the next twenty minutes Ranma played a game of cat and mouse with his former bride until they finally left Nerima. Once outside the city, Shampoo collapsed by a stream and practically turned it into a river with the tears she cried.

Ranma blinked his eyes at the sight of Shampoo covered in dirt and grime crying a river while howling in pain like a wounded banshee. Was the thought of not being his wife really that painful to Shampoo? He was still extremely numb at the thought and trying to process it himself. However, she was acting like the universe was breaking down. In his mind Ranma called out, 'Hey partner. Do you have any suggestions?'

Yashataisho quickly replied, 'You should handle this on your own partner. Just remember to watch what you say as you have a terrible case of foot-in-mouth.'

'Well you're a big help partner,' Ranma sarcastically shot back. He then gulped and slowly approached Shampoo. Nervous sweat poured down the hybrid's back as he spoke up, "Shampoo?"

Instantly the young amazon turned around and pounced on her former husband. The duo was knocked over and Shampoo started crying into Ranma's chest. "Why?" Shampoo sobbed into Ranma's chest. "Why can't I just be with you, Ranma? First I have Panda man and cry baby trying to get you with Akane. Now that she's finally out of the picture I have Mousse pull this on me! Is it wrong for an Amazonian to love a powerful and kind man like you?"

Completely out of his depth, Ranma sent a silent prayer to Tokimi and Tsunami for help. He then went with his gut and wrapped his arms around Shampoo. "I, I don't think so Shampoo. Look, you know me so you know this isn't my strong suit. It shocking I know, the Great Ranma Saotome is admitting he has a weakness." That got a small giggle from Shampoo slowed down the flow of tears. "I don't know how to set everything right for you. I can promise that things will get better somehow."

Shampoo looked up at him with fire in her eyes. "No they won't Ranma. Things will only be all right when I can be an Amazon and your wife! The Elders don't change their minds on issues like these. Even if Grandma could get Elder Mulan's Law overturned, something like that happens once a century at best, our marriage would not be allowed as it occurred while the law was in effect. I'd be forbidden from even challenging you again."

She then stood up and started pacing around the meadow. "But what alternative is there if I don't give you up? I'd be kicked out of the Tribe along with any decedents to at least my own great-grandchildren! I am an Amazon; it's the core of who I am. To lose that would kill me." Shampoo then plopped down on the ground in exhaustion barely able to stay awake.

Ranma got up and quietly said, "I never wanted something like this to happen to you Shampoo; even back when you were trying to kill me. My honor problems have probably caused you a great deal of pain before you got this news. Probably I can't make it up to you; I certainly never deserved your affections. However, I'm going to try so I'll make this promise to you. On my honor, I swear that can ask me for any one thing in my power to do or give and you will have it."

A small smile appeared on Shampoo's face when she heard that promise. "Thank you Ranma. That means so much to me." She then collapsed on the field in exhaustion.

* * *

"That was a very foolish and potentially stupid thing you did partner Ranma." Yashataisho's voice boomed through the central chamber of the umbra ship. Ranma was currently leaning next to the tree trunk of his partner's central tree. It was about two hours after Ranma's promise to Shampoo was made. After she collapsed, he brought her to Yashataisho for safety. "Do you realize what you have done?"

Ranma torn into some jerky and then shot back, "I know what I'm doing! I'm helping out a friend who's in a lot of pain which I'm responsible for causing. If you don't like my solution then you should have voiced it when I asked for your advice. 'You should handle this on your own partner.' Those were your exact words remember. Well guess what Yashataisho, I've handled this. Besides, why are you speaking to me about this now instead of when I brought Shampoo on board?"

The umbra ship quickly replied, "I told you that you needed to handle the situation with Shampoo on your own so that you could develop your own wisdom and reasoning abilities. Now that you have made your decision it is my responsibility as your friend and as your teacher to help you to look back on your decision and see what could be done better in the future when similar situations arise. My immediate silence was due to your emotional high. Analysis like I am talking about can never be done in an emotional state. Even now, your emotions are simmering beneath the surface. I would have waited a day or two if it wasn't for how foolishly you handled the situation."

Ranma jumped up and turned around so he could stare at Yashataisho's tree. "Foolish?" The young hybrid blinked his eyes in disbelief. "How the hell can you call what I did foolish? I know I wasn't anywhere damn near ready to be Shampoo's husband even if I didn't have that multiple fiancée mess. A small part of me is glad this happened because it makes my situation less difficult in trying to figure out who's going to be Mrs. Ranma Saotome. However, I do care a great deal about Shampoo and want her to be happy. You could see the pain she was in through my own eyes and I'm terrible at reading that stuff. I promised to do what I could to make up for all the pain I've put her through and I intend to do so. It's the honorable thing to do."

Yashataisho quickly replied, "Rash oaths are never a good thing partner. Surely you will consider limits if Shampoo takes you up on your offer?"

There was a moment a silence as Ranma dumbly stared at the tree. "You, you think that I'll go back on my word once I've given it?" The air around Ranma started to crackle with ki as Ranma struggled to control his temper. "You know me Yashataisho, you've been with me since I was born and you were created. I won't go back on my honor once I've given it. It's the second most valuable thing I have next to you. With you as my witness I will say this again: Shampoo can receive anything of mine or ask me to do anything and if it is within my power she will have it."

"Don't be an irrational fool Ranma! Kings have fallen because of such oaths. What if Shampoo were to ask-"Abruptly Yashataisho stopped its rant and seemed to be considering something. Ranma blinked his eyes in confusion at his partner's stopping in mid-sentence. In all honesty the sudden break was a welcomed relief for Ranma as it let him get his temper back under control. Eventually Yashataisho spoke again. "Very well partner, if that is your wish I will accept it. I have only this advice to say to you. "Every action you take has consequences and those consequences can have repercussions of their own that you never anticipated having to deal with. You can either try to run from them or embrace them, but eventually you must deal with what you do."

"Don't worry partner, I'm well aware of that." Ranma then huffed and sat down to meditate. He was able to meditate for a few minutes before a door opened in the ground nearby. The young hybrid opened his eyes to watch Shampoo rise from the opening on a small platform. Once the platform was level with the ground it was absorbed by the ship and the grass rushed back into the circle. Ranma stood up and said, "It's good to see you up Shampoo. How long have you been awake? I didn't have Yashataisho tell me because I thought you would like to be alone for a bit to sort things out.

Shampoo gave him a small smile and replied, "I've been up for over an hour and I needed some time to think by myself. Your partner was kind enough to let me call my grandmother for her advice."

"That's good to hear Shampoo. Was her advice helpful?"

A predatory gleam appeared in Shampoo's eyes as she started walking closer to Ranma. For some reason that he couldn't fathom, his danger sense was going off like crazy. However, that didn't make any sense as he wasn't her husband anymore and his danger sense only went off like this when there were women troubles. Shampoo walked to within an inch of Ranma and then replied, "It was very helpful Ranma. Thanks to her advice I was able to make up my mind about what I want."

That was a bit surprising to Ranma. "Really, you know what you want me to do for you? I wasn't expecting you to make your decision so soon. What is it Shampoo?"

Shampoo crossed her arms across her chest and then told Ranma what she wanted. "I want your virginity Ranma." She watched as Ranma stood gapping at her in shock and disbelief. Shampoo quickly took advantage of Ranma's shock to press her body against him. The young amazon brought her lips next to the hybrid's ear and huskily whispered. "The law forbids me from having you as my husband or baring any children by you. However, it doesn't forbid me from loving you or sleeping with you. For tonight, you will be mine and ride me raw. I can at least have this if I cannot have you forever."

* * *

It was bittersweet the next morning when Shampoo woke up the next morning. Even before Shampoo opened her eyes she knew that she'd regret it. She wanted this wonderful moment to go on and on. There was such warmth coming from Ranma's body and his form seemed to be just perfectly sculpted to mold with her own. His gentle breath was like the welcoming kiss of the wind on a hot sunny and his heartbeat was just so relaxing.

A smile appeared on Shampoo's face as she thought about last night. She and Ranma's first time had been an awkward near disaster just like Great-grandmother told her to expect. Still, it was a quite memorable experience. The two of them also had enough stamina for several further rounds that were each better than the last. Part of Shampoo wished that she could spend every day with Ranma like this. However, reality soon forced itself into her mind and the young amazon opened her eyes. Her lover was lying peacefully beneath her with a look of such contentment and joy on his face that it lifted her heart. Shampoo had often watched Ranma sleep while in her cat form and knew that he typically was a tense person and alert for any attack even while resting.

Shampoo slowly sat up and then stood on the ground. The young amazon looked at the vast and beautiful garden like chamber in awe. For a second, Shampoo imagined several children that could have been hers and Ranma's running across the field laughing to their heart's content. She then glanced down at her well-toned stomach and thought about it growing round with a child. It was a wonderful dream to her, but it could only be a dream. She could no more renounce being an Amazon than she could bite off her own limbs.

The young woman walked around the field for several minutes thinking about what she should do now. Staying in Nerima would be pointless and painful. Ranma could never be her husband and it would be unseemly for an Amazonian warrior to continuously cohabitate with a man who wasn't her husband. Spending a night or two with a powerful warrior was acceptable for an unmarried Amazonian. In fact, many of her people did so to 'test the waters' so to speak before issuing a marriage challenge. Shampoo sighed figuring that the best solution to her problem would be to return to the village and try to not encounter Ranma again. It would be easier on her heart that way.

A thought came to Shampoo and she spoke out into the air, "Yashataisho? Can you hear me?"

The ship quickly responded, "Yes Shampoo?"

A small tint came to Shampoo's cheeks as she continued. "I was wondering, could you make a picture of me for Ranma?"

Yashataisho quickly replied, "I can instantly take a photo of anyone in my vessel self. I can also create holographic renderings of the person."

Shampoo nodded her head. "If you could, please make a hologram statue of myself for Ranma." A foot high hologram of Shampoo in her usual outfit appeared the next second. A frown appeared on Shampoo's face and she said, "That's not what I was hoping. Yashataisho, can you make the statue life size and romantic?" The statue changed so that it was life-sized and showed Shampoo in a very lovely sundress. "Good, but is not what I had in mind."

The umbra ship than said, "Perhaps you should specify. What is the intention of this statue?"

A full blush appeared on Shampoo's face as she explained herself. "I want Ranma to have a reminder of my feelings for him. Something that says you have everything I can give you. It's got to be something to remind him about how special last night was to me." The current statue disappeared and a new one appeared in its place. This new light statue featured Shampoo in the nude and made it look like she was crawling up something. There was a possessive glimmer in her eye while her hair was matted with sweat. Shampoo walked around the statue a few times nodding her head. "Thank you Yashataisho. This is exactly what I want Ranma to have."

Yashataisho calmly replied, "Saving image to hard drive. A word of warning Shampoo, your typical shift starts in ten minutes."

Shampoo's eyes widened in shock and she quickly ran about the field gathering her strewn about clothes. She then hastily put them back on and tried to straighten out her appearance a bit. Once everything was decent enough Shampoo called out again, "Please send me back to Nerima!" The ship responded by picking her up in its teleportation beam.

Once the beam ended Shampoo blinked her eyes in confusion. Where was she? She then remembered that she had only asked to go to Nerima and not the Cat Café. Shampoo quickly realized that she needed to figure out where she was in Nerima so that she could then head over to the café.

"What the hell Shampoo, why were you on Ranma honey's starship?" Shampoo turned around and saw Uyko standing nearby holding a box of cooking supplies. Uyko's eyes narrowed as she took in Shampoo's disheveled appearance and her nose caught a certain scent coming from the Amazon. The current time of day and the fact that Ranma was last seen chasing after Shampoo yesterday then bubbled in the cook's head. Uyko added it all up and saw red as she dropped her cooking supplies so she could attack Shampoo.

* * *

Up in space, Yashataisho mentally patted itself on the back for expertly handling so many dangerous situations recently. Ranma would now be more careful about giving his word as its partner knew that Shampoo could have exacted a far heavier price than sleeping with her. In the next couple minutes Ranma's fiancée problems would be over. Uyko's psychological profile strongly suggested that she wouldn't want Ranma as her husband if he ever truly slept with one of her competitors. Teleporting Shampoo in front of her like it had would only be shoving the fact that Ranma had been intimate with another woman into her face increasing those odds. Granted Uyko would likely attack Ranma when he next visited her, but that would only help to reinforce the lesson about giving rash oaths.

The next day, Ranma was walking down a dirt path in Okayama looking like a demon had used him as a training dummy. Correction, he had not been used as a training dummy by a demon. Ranma had been caught on the warpath of his extremely irate and emphatically ex-fiancée Uyko. Nabiki was no doubt selling Uyko's two hour long ending of their engagement bashing of him all over Furinkan High on Japan's internet. That wasn't counting the embarrassment over practically everyone in the school being pissed off over losing their bets on with whom and when he'd lose his virginity. Seriously, what kind of wackos did he have as classmates?

Ranma's reason for being on this path is that this was the shrine where the 700 year old priest was supposed to live. The young hybrid hoped that he could at least get some helpful advice from the priest. With how things were going in Ranma's life he needed someone who was completely unconnected to talk to about things. Sure his partner was a wonderful adviser, but Ranma was hoping for a little more worldly wisdom.

Yashataisho then spoke up as Ranma neared the Masaki Shrine. 'Partner, my sensors are detecting a Juraian Tree near your position.'

Ranma immediately stopped in his tracks to reply. 'How can that be? I thought that Juraian Trees had to stay on their ships?'

'That is the case partner. Outside of their ships or Jurai's unique environment a Juraian Tree will soon degrade into something no different than a regular earth tree. The tree I'm sensing is old and in poor shape, but it is somehow sustaining itself as a Juraian Tree. Perhaps there is a natural energy wellspring of some sort that it is tapping into so as to keep its state. That could explain why the priest you are going to visit is over seven hundred years old. Even a damaged and weak Juraian tree could sustain its partner for several hundred years.'

Keeping that thought in mind, Ranma continued on his way to the shrine. A few minutes later Ranma spotted an old priest calmly sweeping down the shrine's steps. He then called out, "Hey there! Are you Katsuhito Masaki?"

The priest looked up at Ranma in surprise. He calmly set his broom down and then walked closer to Ranma. The priest then said, "That's an odd question for a young man like you to ask someone. Nevertheless, I am Katsuhito Masaki. Might I ask who you are and why you're seeking me out? Most people don't come to the shrine at this time of year."

Ranma scratched his head and replied, "Sorry for being so rude. My name's Ranma Saotome and I've come here because according to someone that I respect a lot you can give me some good advice. While I need advice on a lot of issues, my principal issue is to learn about living an extend lifespan. I was told you'd be the best person to go to for advice since your over seven hundred years old yourself."

Katsuhito's eyes narrowed slightly and then he carefully replied, "That's a tall claim to make young man. I may be old, but what makes you say I'm that old?"

Ranma took a step closer and then replied, "I can't say for certain that you're that old. However, I trust Elder Cologne of the Amazons when she says these things given that she is over 300 years old herself. Now I can't say for certain how you lived for that long. However, my money's on that damaged Juraian Tree my partner detected nearby having a hand on your lifespan."

The priest froze for a minute and his eyes quickly looked like he was deep in thought. Ranma was puzzled at this for a minute before he thought of something. He had never seen or heard someone describe how he looked while talking with Yashataisho. Could Katsuhito be conversing with his partner? Ranma figured he had guessed correctly when Katsuhito opened his eyes and sighed. "I've just been filled in on some important fact. Mr. Saotome, would you care to join me inside for some tea?"

"I'd like the tea, but please don't call me Mr. Saotome. That makes me think of Pops and I don't like being associated with him."

Katsuhito nodded his head, "Very well Ranma. Please follow me." Katsuhito then led Ranma up the steps and then off a side path to his small house. The house was empty since Tenchi and his father were back in the city so that Tenchi could go to school and they wouldn't return again until the summer break. Katsuhito had Ranma sit down in the tiny office and then he went into the kitchen. The old priest returned a few minutes later with a tray set out for two people to have tea. He then put the tray down on a small table and began to pour some tea.

Once the tea was poured, Katsuhito started to speak. "You are correct Ranma; I am over seven hundred years old. You are also correct in that my age is due to the Juraian Tree planted on the shrine's grounds that I am still alive. I see from your face that you know that this shouldn't be so. How did you come by this knowledge? I have never spoken about this outside of close family members."

A chuckle came from Ranma as he answered Katsuhito's question. "That's a bit of a weird story. You see, I've got this ship created by the goddesses Tokimi and Tsunami as my partner and it told me about your tree."

There was a clang on the table as Katsuhito dropped his tea cup in shock. "Tsunami and Tokimi created your partner? Nothing like that has ever happened in Jurai's history!" His eyes narrowed slightly and said, "You could not have heard those names from anywhere except from your partner. However, I am left wondering why those two goddesses would create a ship for a human."

Ranma winced and replied, "I'm not human. It turns out that I'm an atavistic hybrid of Juraians and Yokai. Since both races were each goddess's champion race, they decided to create my partner together rather than letting the other make my partner. Could you not spread it around? I'm trying to keep that fact from causing problems."

Katsuhito nodded his head and replied, "I will if you keep quiet about the fact that I am 700 years old." Ranma nodded his head signify his agreement. The priest then continued on. "Now that that matter is out of the way, let's talk about why you originally came here. If you're just looking for some wise words I can give them to you. However, a few platitudes and sayings are not very useful in the long run. I could teach you much more, but the learning process could take months of regular instruction and the lessons wouldn't seem to progress much at first. Which do you wish Ranma?"

The young hybrid closed his eyes and thought about what Katsuhito told him. He then opened his eyes and said, "I can use my partner to come here after school for most days. Would that work if you were to give me regular lessons?"

Katsuhito smiled and said, "That would work wonderfully my new apprentice."


	7. Old and New Ties

Hinako sighed as she looked at the barely controlled circus she had to call a classroom. It had been a week since Ranma's breakup with Uyko and everyone was still buzzed about the collapse of the Saotome Love Polygon from Hell. That and the fact that Ranma was the only guy confirmed to have 'experience' in the school only made the rumor mills more active. The fact that Ranma had recently gotten a job somewhere only added fuel to the fire. If the rumors were to be believed than the young man had become a certified master at Martial Arts Pimping. Hinako knew that wasn't true because she had met a master of Martial Arts Pimping once at another school she had been sent to clean up. She could testify that Ranma was the opposite of those sleaze bags.

Like the other teachers, Hinako knew where Ranma worked as the young man had filed his paperwork correctly. It was a bit unusual for someone to work at a shrine in another city hundreds of miles away, but rather bland when one considered that this was Ranma Saotome they were talking about. Mr. Masaki had called and confirmed Ranma's employment at the shrine so there weren't any legal issues for the school. Hinako was grateful that Ranma had found such a useful part-time job which would hopefully help to shape up into the productive member of society she knew he could be.

The English teacher carefully wrote out a paragraph and walked her students through its grammar. Once that was done, Hinako gave out her homework. "Okay everyone. For homework I want you to read the first two sections of William Tell in your textbook and answer questions 1 through 8. Remember, the questions must be written in English or they will be marked wrong. Mr. Saotome, would you mind staying behind for a moment so I can talk with you?"

Several of the students snickered at Ranma being called out by the teacher. Hinako frowned slightly as she heard whispers that 'the jock' must be in trouble again. Ranma ignored his classmates and carefully put his books away in his book bag. He then remained in his seat until all the other students had left the classroom. Once they were gone, Ranma stood up and walked towards the currently child teacher. He spoke once he was in front of her desk. "You wanted to speak to me?"

Hinako nodded her head and replied, "Yes I did Ranma. I know that you have been going through a lot of troubling circumstances these past few months and only now have had the chance to step back and think. I just want you to know that you can talk to me or any of the other teachers if you wish to talk about anything that has happened to you. You don't have to talk about anything you wish to keep silent about for now. I just wanted to let you know that I am here for you if you need me."

Ranma blinked his eyes in confusion for a minute as he listened to Hinako's statement. He was unused to people trying to help him without another motive of some sort. Cologne helped first because she wanted him in her tribe and then because she wanted him as an ally. Katshuito helped him because it was the older man's job as a priest and as part of his agreement to work with the older man. Pops 'helped' him in the past because the old man wanted him as a meal ticket. When other people's goals weren't harmful to him or complemented his goals Ranma didn't mind. Cologne and now Katshuito fell in those categories. When other people's interests were against his like his father had been Ranma would resist.

With a hint of confusion in his voice Ranma asked, "Why would you help me? None of the other teachers mentioned anything like this before to me."

A small scowl appeared on Hinako's face. "I know Ranma and I'm honestly disappointed with my coworkers over this. Shortly after you helped me out I started asking around. You see, there are a few discrepancies in your file that needed to be sorted out. Some are simply because the bureaucracy doesn't know how to handle someone in your unique situations. Others are due to some poor decisions made by the school staff. Just in case you haven't noticed, many of my fellow teachers are not particularly adept at handling student problems." That got a snort from Ranma which caused Hinako to smirk. "There seems to be an implicit policy among the other teachers to not approach you about talking about your problems. Their attitude is that you must already be aware of these policies and have freely chosen to remain silent."

Hinako's smirk turned into a frown as she continued. "Their attitude is rather unprofessional. As teachers we are trained that every student having problems is to be treated as if they do not know they can come to us. Some of my fellow teachers my try to doge your questions if you try to talk to them about your problems given how unique your usual problems are. Most of the teachers should listen, but I feel you should be warned given how things were in the past. Nevertheless, I am always willing to listen to your problems and help you solve them to the best of my abilities. Even if the only help I can provide is being a sympathetic ear I would like to do that for you as a teacher and as a friend."

Ranma smiled when he heard Hinako call him a friend. In all honesty, he really didn't have many friends. The guys at school were more of acquaintances to Ranma and they were annoying acquaintances at the moment. Mousse was never a friend period and he was now gone with the rest of the Amazons back to China. Ryoga was more in the acquaintance category at the moment given that he only seemed to pop in once a month or so. When Ranma thought about it he realized that Hinako was his only friend at the moment besides Yashataisho. He gratefully bowed his head and replied, "Thank you. I consider you to be a friend as well and if I need to talk to you about anything I will."

* * *

Katshuito came out of the main shrine building having just finished making the daily offerings to the kami the shrine was dedicated. Living as a simple village priest was a lot more relaxing than dealing with the constant headache of the imperial court. It was annoying to not have Airi with him, but she had important work to do with the Galaxy Police. Hopefully, Tenchi would be mature enough to learn about the more unique aspects of the Masaki family. It would be nice to bring the boy in the loop.

The priest looked down at the stair pathway and nodded in approval of its cleanliness. Ranma could be seen at the very bottom of the pathway finishing up his sweeping. The young man was taking to his training and duties very well without complaining about any tasks. Personally, Katshuito wished that Tenchi would show such dedication and commitment during his times at the shrine. But then, Tenchi did have a much easier life than Ranma and wasn't as aware of all the burdens he would bare in the future like Ranma. The young men were only months apart in age, but years apart in experience.

In many respects it was a good thing that Ranma was so mature for his age given the power at his fingertips. Funaho had been able to pull some rather disturbing data from the young and slightly boastful Yashataisho about the Umbra Ship. Ranma's partner was extremely protective of the young man, but also extremely proud of itself and its partner. From what Funaho could hear from its conversations with the young ship and its sensors could detect the unique vessel was powerful. Yashataisho's power readings even at rest were higher than the Throne was in the heat of battle. Only Tsunami's ship self was more powerful. Furthermore, Yashataisho was far more offensive in his abilities than any other ship that was in the Galactic database. However, those facts weren't the most frightening about the Umbra Ship. What was truly frightening about Yashataisho lay in it and its future line's connection to the two goddesses. The adaptability in that line would allow Yashataisho's descendants to forge an independent connection to the two goddesses almost as strong as the connection Yashataisho held. Funaho calculated that it would take at least 14 generations before an umbra ship would emerged that was as weak as a first generation treeship. Furthermore, the umbra ship's structure indicated that Yashataisho and its descendants would be much more fertile than treeships.

For a man who lived through Ryo-Ohki's assault on Jurai, that information was the seed of the darkest nightmares. Ryo-Ohki's devastation had been on a scale that even put World War 2 to shame and she was the equivalent of a first generation treeship in power. Katshuito knew that Ranma needed to be kept in the dark about just how much power he truly had at his fingertips until he was completely ready to control it. Both Ranma and Yashataisho were powerhouses that would undoubtedly change the face of the galaxy no matter what they tried to do. Katshuito just prayed that he could guide Ranma into a force for justice and stability. His power would just cause too much suffering if Ranma decided to lash out at the universe.

Ranma finished sweeping the last part of the path and turned around to look at Katshuito. "Hey Boss, I'm done sweeping. What do you want me to work on now?"

Katshuito mentally went over the list of daily tasks needed to be done and realized that they were finished. "Everything is done for now Ranma. Would you like to join me for some tea and a game of Go?"

A smile appeared on Ranma's face when Katshuito mentioned the game and refreshments. The old priest usual way of teaching him was to do it in a relaxed manner over some type of strategy game. Katshuito quickly led Ranma into his study. Ranma quickly set up the go table while Katshuito got the water ready for tea. The duo sat down and as usual Katshuito started the game. For the first twenty minutes of the game the two silently sat placing their pieces and sipping tea.

While Katshuito was considering his next move he casually said, "I'd like to consider the following situation Ranma. Suppose a new disease emerged with a very high fatality rate that the Earth doctors couldn't cure. Your partner has analyzed the virus causing the disease and can create a cure. What should you do?"

Almost immediately Ranma blurted out, "I'd disperse the vaccine to stop the plague. It would be criminal to not help people if I have the power to ease their suffering."

"I suppose that is one way of looking at the problem Ranma. But consider this, Galactic law prohibits spacefaring people from curing diseases affecting low technology races unless said disease is threating the species with severe catastrophe. Have you stopped to consider why that law exists or even that it was on the books?" After saying that, Katshuito put his stone on the board.

Ranma frowned from Katshuito's move on the board and the points he raised. "I didn't know about the law, but I would still help. Hiding behind a law is the act of someone trying to avoid responsibility for their actions or in this case inaction. What if the people of the galaxy were affected by a plague that they couldn't cure? Suppose that a species from another universe could cure that plague but refused because they had laws limiting their interference with 'low technology societies' which they classified us as? Wouldn't the galaxy clamor for their aid and curse them for withholding it?" Ranma then set his stone down capturing five of Katshuito's stones with a smirk.

Katshuito raised an eyebrow not expecting the move Ranma made or his point in their debate. "You have a very good point Ranma. From what I have read and what my father told me, such a point was never raised when that law was written. But consider this, curing said disease is only the first step. How would you provide the cure to everyone? Just releasing it into the atmosphere wouldn't insure that everyone was vaccinated. The best way to distribute the cure would be to give it to the various medical agencies which would necessitate revealing alien existence to mankind. Have you considered the kind of panic and disorder that would unleash? Galactic observers are extremely confident that humanity would experience a catastrophic social collapse if they had hard evidence that other intelligent life existed. Are the lives of the hundreds of thousands who might be cured by your cure in this scenario worth the lives of the millions who could die from the resulting collapse?" With that said, Katshuito placed his stone.

A frown appeared on Ranma's face as he tried to work his way out of that problem. "I hadn't thought about that. Perhaps I could pretend to be the representative of a small research firm. I could claim that my group was working on finding a cure and got lucky. Then I could show them the results and give them the cure formula." He placed a stone and more confidently stated, "It might be a bit slower, but I could still cure most people while preventing mass panic."

"Good move Ranma that is a good plan." Katshuito took a sip of tea and considered the issue in front of him. Ranma was defiantly a better thinker than most people he talked to about these issues. The most annoying was the conversation he had with Mr. Roddenberry back in the sixties. It was still embarrassing to the Juraian prince that the serious political and philosophical theories he talked with the writer about in disguised conversation were flanderized as that ridiculous Prime Directive on Star Trek. "But have you considered the problems with that possibility? Research labs do not exist in a vacuum. Like any other business they have a very large paper trail. People would ask who works at this lab of yours. Where did your researchers go to school? Where is the lab physically located? They will have whole host of other questions you wouldn't be able to answer." With that said, Katshuito placed his stone so as to capture most of Ranma's forces.

Ranma looked down at the board and realized he had lost the debate and the game. He then looked up at Katshuito who was giving Ranma one of his grandfatherly smiles. "You have a good heart Ranma and I'm happy to see you have it. However, you need to temper your compassion with intelligence. Those with power to stop a calamity must sometimes let a calamity happen in order to prevent a worse calamity from arising. That is partly why interstellar races let less developed races go through problems like plagues. It also is so that the younger races can grow and learn. However, that restraint must also be used with reason. No race should die off because they didn't have the technology to ask for aid. That is why there is an exemption written in the law for those circumstances. Now, why don't you head home and finish your homework."

* * *

Something was wrong. Ranma knew it immediately when he woke up and jumped out of his bed. The young hybrid landed on the grass three feet away in a crouch and hissed. All his instincts were screaming danger, but Ranma couldn't spot any danger on the ship. "Yashataisho, are we in any danger?"

The umbra ship calmly replied, "None at all partner."

"Bullshit!" Ranma practically roared out in rage. "My instincts are screaming that something is wrong. I'm certain that we are about to be attacked." Ranma's temper started to fare at his partner's callous attitude.

Yashataisho quickly scanned its partner and realized what was going on. "Partner you must calm down! Your body has begun its maturation stage."

In hostile tone Ranma replied, "What are you talking about!" It was only Ranma's trust in his partner that prevented him from trying to attack Yashataisho. Even so, Ranma's power level spiked as he instinctively prepared himself for a fight.

Yashataisho quickly answered its partner. "Your hormone levels are at 700 percent the level they were at yesterday and rising very rapidly. Furthermore, several special types of cells in your body have begun reproducing at a much higher rate than previously. What you are feeling is an effect of your body changing into its adult state."

Ranma was barely able to contain his temper as he interrogated the umbra ship. "Then why the hell am I so pissed off and every fiber of my body is telling me I'm about to be attacked?"

The ship was silent for a few seconds as it hurriedly analyzed the situation. Simulations on Ranma's genome were run and compared to the medical records of the Juraians and Yokai. Soon enough Yashataisho had an answer. "Your emotional state and your instincts reaction are a result of your hybrid nature. Yokai typically isolated themselves during their maturation so that they couldn't be attacked by rivals looking to remove future competition. Your hybrid nature is magnifying those instincts. What you are feeling now is simply your mind trying to interpret all of the new hormones you're producing."

Logically knowing that Yashataisho was right, Ranma tried to use the Soul of Ice to control himself. Gradually, ever so gradually the young man was able to reign in his emotions and instincts. It wasn't completely successful though because Ranma still felt the need to check his surroundings for a possible attack and was rather irritated. "How am I supposed to go to school or work at the shrine when I'm a hairsbreadth away from either bolting or ripping someone's head off?"

Yashataisho quickly said, "Why don't you meditate for more control while I contact Katshuito and your high school to sort things out? At the very least it will help you get better control of your emotions."

Ranma nodded his head seeing Yashataisho's point. He closed his eyes and tried to center himself. That was one of the hardest things for Ranma to do at the moment. He hadn't had this much trouble centering himself except for when he first started meditating. The difficulty only made Ranma more frustrated which in turn made it harder for him to center himself. This cycle didn't spiral out of control only because of Ranma's iron like will. He turned his frustration into a drive to overcome this new challenge. For the next hour Ranma silently sat on the grass trying to calm himself through meditation.

This meditation ended when Ranma's ears heard the faint hum of a teleporter activating. Ranma instantly opened his eyes and saw Hinako transporting onto the field in front of him. She was in her child form with a large stack of books in her arms. Ranma blinked his eyes to confirm that Hinako was there and then he smiled. "Hello Hinako, what are you doing here?"

Hinako smiled and replied, "I'm here for your education of course Ranma. Yashataisho had a rather interesting conversation with the principle. It was decided that until you could get over this latest challenge in your life that you will be tutored. I was chosen to be your tutor partly because the principal wanted me keeping an eye on a 'trouble maker' and partly because your starship figured I would be the least likely to provoke any dangerous reactions from you."

Ranma nodded his head and realized that his partner was correct. He didn't feel threatened around Hinako. Maybe a bit on edge like he needed to protect her, but not that he needed protection from her. "I have to agree with Yashataisho in that regard. I don't know why that is, but I think that my partner has guess on that subject."

"That is correct partner." Yashataisho said in its typical mechanical tone. "Hinako's current prepubescent physical state renders her nearly harmless for your instincts. As a female she is does not pose the same threat that a male would. Furthermore, her young physical state keeps you from instinctively desiring her as a sexual partner. While your unique status makes it impossible to completely predict your body's reactions, there is an 89 percent chance you would ignore Hinako completely, 10 percent chance of desiring to protect her, and 1 percent uncertainty."

Blushes appeared on both Hinako and Ranma's faces when Yashataisho told them those facts. Hinako quickly schooled her features and told Ranma, "Your partner doesn't have much tact does he?" Ranma shot her a glance that seemed to be asking what tact was. Hinako then sighed and asked, "Yashataisho, what could happen if were to transform into my adult state?" She had a good hunch what the answer was, but wanted her suspicions confirmed.

Yashataisho quickly answered that question. "My partner's likely reactions in that scenario cannot be computed with reasonable accuracy. Most likely he would react indifferent to you as Ranma's body does not yet possess a mature sexual drive. At the moment and for the next couple of weeks the only sexual response your adult body would trigger in Ranma is a desire to flirt. However, my partner's hybrid nature makes it impossible to say which traits will emerge, when they do, or how strong they will be. Even my constant monitoring of Ranma's biosigns does not allow me to make such predictions with reasonable accuracy. It is my opinion that you should remain in child form until Ranma has gain complete control over his instincts."

Ranma looked like he wanted to find a hole to crawl in and die from embarrassment. Hinako was a little embarrassed with Yashataisho's clinical talk on those matters. She knew that it was only talking about Ranma like a breeder might talk about horses or cats, but was rather embarrassing to be the subject of the conversation. Hinako shifted subjects by saying, "Okay, Biology isn't until Tuesday. Ranma, if you will please get over here we can begin with your Asian History class."

* * *

It took Ranma a month before he got enough control over the changes his maturation was bringing that Yashataisho would let him go back to Earth. Naturally, the rumor mill at school had gotten even crazier over his absence. By the time class ended for the day Ranma was ready to go postal on the next student who asked him if he really was captured by a Scottish succubus to be her prince of the netherworld. Just because Ranma could control his instincts to be around people did not mean he could also put up with their bullshit. Besides, where the hell were people getting these ideas in the first place?

Ranma quickly raced out of Furinkan just enjoying the chance to run. Katshuito told him that he could resume his normal duties at the shrine in a week. The old priest wanted Ranma to have the chance to just be a teenager with his current situation before added more duties. Ranma smiled as he thought about Katshuito. The old priest had called him every day while he was regaining control of himself. Sometimes Katshuito would give Ranma useful advice for meditating and controlling himself. Other times their conversations were lessons on ethics. Still other times the old priest just chatted for a friendly conversation.

In all honesty, Ranma was slowly starting to think of Katshuito as the father he wished Genma had been. The old priest was willing to accept him mix heritage and curse included. Katshuito was willing to listen to Ranma's problems and treated him as an adult. All and all Katshuito was better than-

An angry voice that Ranma hadn't heard since that night nearly two months ago bellowed out, "Boy! Where the hell have you been?" Ranma whipped his head around to see his father standing across the street from him. The old man had his traveling backpack on and looked mad as anything. Genma charged across the street and started berating Ranma. "Do you realized what your dishonorable actions have caused? Your fiancée has run away and is staying at guy's house! I've been trying to find you so that we can get this whole mess sorted out. Now you will be coming with me so that you can beg Soun for the right to be with you fiancée again!"

Obviously, Mr. Tendo had kicked the old man out of his house without Ranma there to 'fulfill the Pledge'. However, Ranma had no intension of going back under his father's leash and his temper was simmering to a boil. Ranma put himself into the Soul of Ice and coldly replied, "No Mr. Saotome."

Genma blinked his eyes in shock at Ranma's defiance. Apparently, the lack of contact with his son had caused the older martial artist to suppress or forget Ranma's changes before that night. Genma's face and ears became red with rage and he bellowed out, "Don't talk to your betters like that boy! Do you not realize what you dishonorable actions have cause?"

The older Saotome was prevented from saying more by his son grabbing his gi and lifting the pudgy martial artist over his head. A glow of purple energy surrounded Ranma and miniature lightning bolts shot out between him and the ground. Suddenly, Ranma and Genma were alone in the seemingly deserted streets. The locals hadn't had to do a martial arts smack down evacuation in a few months, but that skill is something that never leaves a person. Visitors to the district had been pulled into hiding by the locals.

Ranma turned his neck so that he could look up at his father and grinded his teeth together. Genma's eyes started to bulge in fear as he watched Ranma's canines enlarge and his other teeth start to shift a bit into tiny daggers. The young hybrid's eyes gained a bestial quality and started to glow red with power. "Don't you dare talk to me that way ever again Genma Saotome. You are not my better and you're not my equal. Hell, you're not even in the first several tiers of my inferiors. All you are is a miserable excuse for a man trying to avoid your responsibilities and the consequences of your actions."

Then without warning Ranma threw Genma onto the ground causing his father to break an arm from the sidewalk shattering impact. Genma let out a cry of pain which caused several dozen people to look up from their hiding spots. All of the locals were confused. Why the hell was the fat martial artist crying? They had all seen Ranma and Ryoga take dozens of blows like that with barely a wince.

Part of Ranma was utterly disgusted by Genma's whining and screaming in pain. He knew that the old man used to be able to take blows like that. Obviously, all that time playing shogi with Soun had softened the old martial artist. Rather ironic given all the times Genma had harped on him about getting soft. It just fueled Ranma's instinctive disgust for his father which was burning like an oil rig fire just beneath his control. This worm thought he could control him?

However, a small sliver of Ranma still felt some love for his father and was saddened by the sight before him. Ranma's canines shrunk a bit and his eyes soften some. "Go to a doctor Mr. Saotome. Get that broken arm taken care of and then leave. There is nothing for you in this city." With that said, Ranma ordered Yashataisho to beam him up. Genma last image of Ranma was the boy looking down on him like he was some sort of trash.


	8. Summer problems

Tenchi started walking up the steps to his grandfather's shrine in a slightly glum mood. School was finally out and it was great to see his grandfather again. But, he was sixteen! All of his associates at school would be down by the beach or going to movies and here he was in the boondocks. The Masaki Shrine was this little town's main attraction with a rundown hot spring twenty minutes away being the next major attraction. Tenchi loved nature, but he also wanted to be a normal teenager on summer break. You know, hang out with his buds, visit a few cool hangouts, and maybe even get a girlfriend.

With a sigh, Tenchi adjusted his backpack and continued to walk up the shrine steeps. There was no use complaining about being here in dullsville. Besides, he was used to it so the summer wouldn't be that disappointing. Nobuyuki wasn't climbing up the steps with Tenchi at the moment because the elder Masaki had run into town to pick up a few supplies. As the younger Masaki walked up the steps he frowned. Something about the path he was on was different. It took Tenchi a few seconds, but then he realized what was different. The path was too clean and well kept. His grandfather did a good job keeping up the shrine's appearance, but this was far more than the old man could do. For a moment, Tenchi wondered if his grandfather had finally broken down and hired a landscaping company to help him like his father had suggested on their last visit.

With a curious expression on his face, Tenchi continued his climb up the stairs. He eventually found his answer to why the grounds were so well kept when he spotted Ranma in ceremonial robes cleaning the side path to the shrine proper. Tenchi stopped and looked at the young hybrid in mild surprise. He didn't recognize the young man from previous trips over the years to the nearby village. However, the biggest surprise for the unaware prince was the fact that Ranma's ears were pointed. The left ear was pointed like an elf while the right ear was halfway between the left and a normal ear in pointiness. Furthermore the right ear's tip was red like it was undergoing stress.

Ranma looked up from the path and instantly gave Tenchi a spine numbing glare. The glare lasted for a second and then Ranma was able to reign in his instinctive hostility. While the hybrid's yokai instincts had gotten easier to control over the past two months since encountering his father, Ranma still had to watch himself around new people. The young hybrid scratched the back of his head and said, "Sorry about that. I don't do well when new people manage to get close to me without realizing it. Are you Tenchi Masaki? Sensei Katsuhito mentioned that his grandson would be coming today."

Tenchi blinked his eyes in confusion. "Yes I'm Tenchi Masaki and everything is fine. I did disturb your work after all. By the way, who are you? Grandfather never mentioned having a second priest at the shrine on his phone conversations."

Ranma set his washing ladle down and then replied, "I'm not a priest or training to be one. I'm a martial artist who had and still has a lot questions concerning where my life is going. Your grandfather has been helping me learn about myself and what I want to do with my life. In return, I've been helping him out around the shrine as an assistant caretaker."

Perhaps this summer wouldn't be so boring after all, Tenchi mused as he looked at Ranma. At the very least this would be the first time someone else his age would be at the shrine with him. Tenchi smiled and replied, "That's cool. It will be nice to have someone around my age here at the shrine while I'm here." Tenchi then gave Ranma a polite bow. As he bowed, the young Masaki's suitcase knocked into the bucket of water. The water flew from the bucket and activated Ranma's anti-curse activation shield.

With an utterly dumbfounded look on his face, Tenchi's eye traveled from Ranma to the bucket and back again. "Uh Ranma did a purple force field suddenly appear around you?"

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Ranma couldn't meet a potential new friend for more than five minutes before the curse made its way into the conversation. At least the curse hadn't activated. That would probably have convinced Tenchi that the boy had entered the twilight zone. Still, an explanation was in order. "That Tenchi," Ranma calmly began, "was a protection field to stop cold water from touching me. I've got a real curse that activates every time I'm splashed with cold water. It used to drive me nuts trying to find some warm water to deactivate the curse as no shrine is able to cure the blasted thing. A few months ago, just before I met your grandfather, I got an amulet that protects me from cold water hitting me."

For a split second Tenchi wondered if Ranma was crazy. Sure he had seen the purple field appear around Ranma. However, the idea of curses with triggers was just too strange for him. In all honesty, Tenchi was having trouble buying into many of the traditions his father and grandfather tried to raise him with. Why worry about offending the kami of a pebble when there was MTV to watch? Sure the family shrine was supposedly founded by a heavenly warrior who slew and then imprisoned a demon away 700 years ago. Tenchi figured that Yosho probably was a samurai who fought a very ugly and very nasty bandit which all the locals considered to be a demon. All he needed to do to prove it was to get the key to the 'demon prison' from his grandfather.

Ranma saw the look of disbelief on Tenchi's face and sighed. "Fine, don't believe me if you want to do so. Just remember that I warned you if you see the curse in action. Now let's get you to your grandfather's house." Ranma quickly led Tenchi towards his grandfather's house wondering what it would be like to be able to dismiss magic and all the other 'crazy' aspects of his life.

* * *

Two days later, Katsuhito quietly observed Ranma and Tenchi do their chores to upkeep the shrine. Both boys had quickly become friendly acquaintances as he had expected. The two of them were rather friendly people and they both were the only ones interacting with each other in their age group at the moment. However, there was also an undercurrent of tension between the two that really worried the prince turned priest. The tension wasn't much at the moment, but it could grow and cause a lot of problems in the future.

At its heart the tension between Ranma and Tenchi that was building was due to the maturity and knowledge Ranma had that Tenchi lacked. Tenchi wanted a girlfriend like most young teenaged boys and had an idealized almost flanderized idea of what having a girlfriend was like. Ranma had experience with relationships with women and had a fairly realistic if ever so slightly cynical view on those relationships. Tenchi was still in the dark about his heritage and about the more mystical aspects of the world. Mostly, that was because the boy wasn't quite ready to deal with those parts of reality. Ranma had been thrown head first into the deep end of the bizarre and had managed to do fairly well for himself. Katsuhito could see a bit of resentment in Ranma's eyes over Tenchi being shielded from those sorts of things, but the young man was respectful of Katsuhito's wishes.

Silently, Katsuhito prayed to Tsunami that the tension between the boys would fade in time. Grudges had started over less and Jurai couldn't afford to have Ranma with an ax to grind against her. Mentoring Ranma was in some ways like dealing with nitroglycerin. Katsuhito needed to be firm enough as a mentor and influential enough to insure that Ranma grew up into the great man he could be. At the same time, the prince couldn't be manipulative or let his actions be misconstrued as manipulation as Ranma would at best leave. In the worst case, Ranma might turn into a pirate or attack Jurai just to spite him. That was a possibility that Katsuhito prayed would never come to pass.

Part of Katsuhito wished that he could officially foster Ranma. He knew Airi would be ecstatic to have a fine young man to be a mother to again. However, Katsuhito never approach Ranma about this possibility even though the young man was starting to act like they were in a foster pact. The reason why Katsuhito wouldn't bring up this idea to Ranma was that the required paperwork would send up signal flares across the galaxy. In hiding or not, a crown prince does not agree to take on parental responsibilities for someone and to raise him to be a noble every century. Pirates and other galactic criminals would flock to Earth for a shot a taking control of Yashataisho. Furthermore, Juraian politics would be put into turmoil as noble houses would riot that a 'nobody' like Ranma got the honor of being fostered by the crown prince while their sons and daughters did not. Then there would be the interstellar politics whereby people would think that the Juraians were trying to secure a powerful future fleet of warships. Those suspicious of the Juraians would likely start considering whether or not to preemptively attack the Empire for their own protection.

Katsuhito stopped his reflections on possible future situations to listen into the boys who were starting to argue. "Look Ranma," Tenchi began, "between the two of us we can have all of the chores done by three at the latest. That should give us plenty of time to go down to the village and try to meet some cute girls. I know there weren't many when I was here last year, but things change."

Ranma tensely glared at Tenchi and shot back. "Why the hell are you so anxious to get a girlfriend? Have you considered everything about a future relationship? You need money to take her places, time to keep her happy, like a number of her interests, and a whole host of other things to make a relationship work."

Tenchi blinked his eyes at Ranma's reply. The Juraian noble scratched the back of his head nervously. "You're being very serious about all of this Ranma. I'm not talking about trying to get a long term girlfriend. All I'm saying is that it would be nice to meet some cute girls to have some fun times over the summer with. You know, like the summer romances you see in all those tv shows which end when everyone goes back to school leaving everyone involved with happy memories of their time together."

It took a great deal of self-control to prevent Katsuhito from groaning in disappointment. What kind of garbage was Tenchi watching? There is no such thing as a no-strings attached relationship. At least his grandson was only looking for a girl to date and not looking for a bedroom partner. Katsuhito decided to nip this argument in the bud by walking up on the duo and speaking. "So you two will be done all of your chores by three o'clock at the latest? That's very good news. I have several tasks that I've had to put off because I haven't had the time to do them. We can get started on the first task once you are done with your regular chores."

A small smirk appeared on Katsuhito's face as he looked at Tenchi's shocked and slightly horrified face. Ranma wasn't even fazed by the declaration of more work. In fact, the young man almost seemed relieved at the notice. Hopefully Tenchi would learn a valuable lesson from this argument's diffusion; never talk about free time in front of the boss!

* * *

Ranma was lying on a beach chair tanning in her female form on Yashataisho by the bathing pool. A month had passed since Katsuhito's relatives arrived for their annual summer visit and Ranma was enjoying her day off. Ranma still preferred to be male, but she was trying to come to terms with her feminine side since she was stuck with the curse. Katsuhito made the suggestion that she spend some as a girl to make peace with that side of her. The old priest's words still rang in Ranma's head, "One cannot be happy if they are at war with themselves."

As she was lazing about in the artificial sunlight, Ranma continued to realize just how true Katsuhito's words were. Although, she would have to admit that not dealing with a stressful home life made it easier to accept the curse. Not having the panda accusing her of being weak, Akane accusing her of being a pervert, or Nabiki trying to take pictures of her as a girl made it easier to be a girl. Onboard Yashataisho, the only one Ranma had to worry about was his partner and it just wanted him to be happy and successful.

The lazy afternoon was interrupted for Ranma by Yashataisho speaking up. "Partner, you have an incoming call on telephone." Now Ranma actually didn't have a telephone onboard the ship. Yashataisho had simply stolen an unused telephone number by hacking into the phone companies in Japan and transferring all calls to that number to itself.

Ranma turned on her side and said, "Put the call on the room speakers Yashataisho."

Seconds later Ranma heard Kasumi's voice, "Hello is this Ranma Saotome's phone number?"

Very quickly Ranma replied, "This is my number Kasumi. Where did you get it?" In the back of her mind Ranma wondered why Kasumi would call her since she had effectively cut all ties to the Tendos.

Kasumi quickly replied, "Oh my Ranma, I almost didn't recognize your voice. I got your phone number from your old teacher Ms. Ninomiya. She was a little hesitant to give it out, but I was able to convince her that I just wanted to talk to you."

Ranma nodded her head. "Okay, that makes sense. So what did you want to talk to me about Kasumi? Not that I don't want to talk to you, because I was hoping to speak with you again. It's just that given my history with your family I figured that it would be best to stay away."

There was a pause for a few seconds and then Kasumi continued. "Can we talk in private? I mean, can we meet somewhere so that I can talk about a few things without risking someone overhearing us? I've just got a lot on my mind at the moment and there's no one else I can think to talk to about this besides you."

For just a split second Ranma looked down at her state of undress and frowned. She then asked, "How soon do you need to talk? I can have Yashataisho beam you up as soon as you give the word." As she spoke, Ranma rolled onto her stomach and hastily pulled a towel onto her to cover her butt. Not doing so would have guaranteed that Kasumi would see everything.

Kasumi replied, "I'm alone now and I need to talk now so-" The eldest Tendo sister was cut off as Yashataisho immediately beamed her up so that she was two feet away from Ranma. Kasumi blinked her eyes for two seconds trying to process everything that had happened to her. Usually she was on the periphery of the local weirdness. A blush started to form on her face as the older woman looked at her sister's former fiancée barely covering her modesty. Kasumi looked down and nervously said, "I'm sorry Ranma I didn't know that you were. Well that you are. What I mean is."

"Don't worry about it Kasumi." Ranma firmly said cutting off the older girl's rambling. "In all honesty I'm a bit surprised that an embarrassing incident like this hasn't happened sooner. It used to be that I couldn't go for a week without something happening. What's a little embarrassment between friends if you get the help you need quicker? Besides, I seem to recall a few more incidents that were far more embarrassing than this. So now that I know you don't try to sunbath when a friend could need help, can you tell me what is troubling you?"

A brief smile appeared on the brunette's face as she heard Ranma brush off everything like nothing was wrong. She hadn't seen him in months and he still treated her like he saw her every day. Kasumi politely sat down near Ranma on her knees like everything was normal. Worry quickly filled Kasumi's face and she began to talk. "Ranma, I don't know how much you're aware of things in Nerima lately. Ever since school ended for the summer you've barely appeared in town so I don't know how much you know of our situation. Something has happened with Nabiki."

Ranma raised an eyebrow when she heard that. She always figured that Nabiki was the least likely of the Tendo sisters to get in trouble. "What's happened to Nabiki? She may not be my favorite person in the world, but I don't want anything bad to happen to her."

Kasumi paused for a second as if she had to gather her will in order to speak. She looked down at the grass in shame as she spoke. "Nabiki was arrested last week on charges of racketeering. I don't know the exact details, but one of the people involved in her little activities notified the police after losing some money. While a number of classmates have lodged their own complaints, I don't think my sister will be convicted as the evidence is circumstantial and she's already been allowed to return home until the trial is complete."

Unable to bring herself to look at Ranma, Kasumi continued the troubling tale. "While Nabiki is likely to either be exonerated of all charges given some community service time, that's not our family's real problem. A few hours ago, all the other members of the Town Council visited my father and requested that he turn in his resignation from the council. They said that having a person on the council who had a close relative defending herself in court would be unseemly. There is just too much risk of people thinking that the courts might possibly be biased no matter what the court decides on the case."

Ranma scowled as she realized the kind of trouble that Kasumi was worried about. What were the Tendos' going to do with Soun about to lose his job? Reopening the Dojo was a no go. The laws currently required dojo owners to have several different types of licenses which Soun didn't qualify for and it would take the middle aged man at least two years to get all of them. Back when Soun had been teaching he had gotten grandfathered from those requirements, but that grandfather protection ended when Soun stopped actively teaching. That was one of the reasons why Genma and Soun had been pushing for Ranma to reopen the dojo for them.

For a second she thought about suggesting that Kasumi try to get her father to look for another job or go job hunting herself. However, Ranma squashed that thought when she remembered how tough the Japanese job market was at the moment. Besides, who in Nerima would want to hire a disgraced councilman or the sister of a criminal even if the judge let Nabiki off? She could offer to help the Tendos pay their bills for a while. Sure Kasumi and more importantly Mr. Tendo's pride would try to refuse any such offer of pity. Ranma figured she could get around that by saying the money was her way of repaying all the trouble she had caused and to make up for breaking the betrothal agreement.

The problem is that Ranma couldn't think of a long term solution to the Tendo's problem other than try and find some way to get them a new job. She sighed and said, "I'm sorry that all of this is happening to you Kasumi. I wish I had some way to help or some good advice to give you, but I don't."

A stray thought crossed Ranma's mind when she saw Kasumi frown slightly revealing that the brunette had hoped Ranma could pull a solution out of nowhere like she usually could. "I might not be able to help you solve your problems, but I think I know someone who does. The priest I'm working for has seven hundred years of experience under his belt even though he tries to be quiet about his age. He might be able to advise you or perhaps he knows someone who needs some help at the moment."

Kasumi smiled at the smoking hot redhead. "Really Ranma, you think your boss can help me?"

Ranma smiled and replied, "I think so Kasumi. If you want, I can arrange for you two to meet soon."

The elder woman smiled and said, "Oh thank you Ranma. I don't know how I or my family is going to repay you for this."

* * *

Two days later Ranma and Kasumi were beamed to the entrance of the Masaki Shrine. Kasumi was wearing a conservative blouse with a matching colored dress that went to her mid calves. Ranma was in his male form and wearing one of his usual red silk shirt and black pants combo. Thanks to his continuing maturation, Ranma was now as tall as Kasumi and with a slightly more bulk to his muscles. Ranma smiled at Kasumi and said, "Well here we are at the Masaki Shrine. Katsuhito said that he'd be waiting for us in his office. Oh, try not to mention anything less than normal around Katsuhito's grandson Tenchi. The boy still isn't in the loop on a lot of things and my boss wants to keep it that way for a little while longer."

Kasumi nodded her head and replied, "Okay Ranma." She bowed her head slightly so that Ranma couldn't see the faint blush forming on her face. On the inside Kasumi wondered when Ranma had become so attractive. Sure he had been handsome before in a boyish sort of way, but now he entering movie star levels of attractive.

Ranma casually led his friend up the stairs to the temple. He kept the pace reasonably slow so that Kasumi could have a chance to look at the scenery around the shrine. While Ranma still didn't grasp every social nicety, he figured a slight delay to help Kasumi relax before her meeting was a good thing. The duo nearly made it to the shrine's main office when Tenchi came around the corner with a broom to start sweeping. Tenchi looked at Ranma and Kasumi with a bit of shock and blurted out, "What's going on Ranma? Did you skip your morning chores to go on a date?"

For a split second Tenchi felt a presence pressing down on him and then it ended. Ranma, having quickly corrected his momentary slip of control, gave his friend a serious look. "Kasumi is a friend of mine from my old town who needs some help. I arraigned for her to have a meeting with your grandfather so that the two of them could talk. In case you've forgotten, Katsuhito mentioned yesterday that I would be late to work today and the reason for that is so that could bring Kasumi here. Once I escort her to the office I'll join you."

A sheepish look crossed Tenchi's face and he let the duo pass. Ranma quickly led Kasumi inside and then politely knocked on the office door. Katsuhito quickly opened the door and smiled at Kasumi. The old priest gave Kasumi a polite bow and said, "Good day Miss Tendo. Please come in and hopefully I can help you like my student thinks I can." Katsuhito turned to Ranma and said, "Ranma, could you please go to the south side of the shrine? The bushes by the stream are starting to grow out of control and need to be trimmed back a bit."

Ranma nodded his head and quickly departed to do his chore. At the same time, Katsuhito stepped aside so that Kasumi could enter the office. The old priest led her to a small bench and the two sat down. For the next ten minutes Kasumi carefully explained the situation and in slightly greater detail than she had gone into with Ranma. Finally she asked, "Mr. Masaki, what is your advice for this situation?"

Katsuhito frowned and replied, "I will be honest Miss Tendo your family is in some tough times thanks to your sister's rash actions. Ideally your sister's actions should not affect you or your father, but we both know that the world is not an ideal place. Am I correct in assuming that you have already tried looking for work and have had your application summarily dismissed?"

Unable to speak from sadness, Kasumi nodded her head. Help wanted ads for jobs that she could do were slim enough in Nerima. Part of Kasumi wished that she could have completed the nursing program she had been enrolled in part time. However, the slight decrease in available funds due to house repairs had put that program on hold. Before this situation arose, Kasumi had been planning on picking up the program in the fall. However, that couldn't happen since the family would need the funds to help make it through its current crisis.

A sigh escaped Katsuhito's lips. Even with all his years of experience, bigots quickly got his temper inflamed. He then started to give Kasumi some advice. "My first suggestion for you is that your family considers moving out of Nerima. Land prices in the Wards are ridiculously expensive compared to other parts of the country as is the cost of living. While I don't know how much land you do have, the fact that you have fairly large house and your own dojo suggests a good deal of land. Selling the land and moving to one of country towns or smaller cities could give your family quite a lot of money. That money and the lower costs of living in another part of the country could let your family last until your father or perhaps you could find a job. It would also be easier to downplay your sister's actions if you move to a new location. I would recommend against hiding her actions, but not advertising her actions at the same time if you took this path. What do you think of that suggestion Miss. Tendo?"

Kasumi quickly shook her head. "Selling the dojo or any part of our family's land is out of the question Mr. Masaki. Given our circumstances I would be willing to consider the possibility, but that decision is not up to me. You see, the land has belonged to the Tendo Clan for over 300 years. It may only be a small plot of land for a samurai family, but it has been a source of pride for the Tendos over the past three centuries since it was personally given to us by the Shogun. My father would never sell the land or allow that option to be brought up."

The priest nodded head in understanding. Pride and honor were good things to have, but not to the extent that they caused other people harm. "I understand Miss Tendo. I don't agree with your father's apparent stance, but I can understand it. Since you need a solution that allows you to stay in Nerima I would suggest starting a business out of your house. Ranma has mentioned several times that you are a very talented cook. Homemade bentos could be marketed to some small convenience stores for a reasonable profit for instance. While there are some large startup costs, I think you could easily get Ranma to provide a loan or offer him a partnership deal."

For a few seconds a smile appeared on Kasumi's face. She was a bit proud that Ranma had boasted of her cooking abilities. Kasumi thought about it for a moment before replying. "That is a good suggestion. However, I'm not sure that my cooking would be so good in mass production. Part of what makes my meals so good is the careful attention and love I put in it." Kasumi thought for a moment about the journal she had been writing in ever since Ranma showed up. Some of his adventures were really fascinating and she had written them down. Perhaps she could go into writing? No, Kasumi quickly admitted to herself that she wasn't a great writer at the moment. Perhaps if she had a year or two to practice that would be different but not now.

She paused in her reflection to notice an interesting look on Katshuito's face. It was the look of someone who had an idea but didn't want to bring it up for some reason. Kasumi politely smiled and said, "Mr. Masaki if you have another idea I would be grateful to hear it. Even if it's not a particularly good idea I would like to have as much advice as possible."

There was a pause and the office became slightly tense as a pensive look crossed the priest's face. He then calmly spoke. "There is a third option available to you with Ranma's help should he agree. I didn't want to bring this up because I figured you would reject it out of hand as most women on Earth would."

Kasumi's eyes narrowed slightly as she inquired, "What is this option? I get the sense that I probably won't like it but I want to hear it anyway."

Katsuhito quickly carried on his explanation. "The Japanese government, like most stable governments around the world, is both aware of the extraordinary aspects of world and has regulations for it. These are naturally kept hidden from ordinary folks to keep things calm." For a brief second Katshuito thought about the Roswell Incident that the US government staged as a test to see how people would react to the idea of aliens visiting. The results firmly convinced the world governments to keep a tight lid on the supernatural and extraterrestrial.

Continuing on he said, "Ranma's status as a non-human hybrid gives him certain legal rights and advantages that regular people do not. In particular, Ranma has the right to take as many concubines among the Japanese as he wishes so long as he can afford the fees for the paperwork and the costs to maintain them."

Kasumi's face lost some of its color when she heard that option. Doing something like that was a little too close to joining the water trade for her comfort at the moment. She quickly steeled her nerves and replied with a small edge to her voice, "How can that even be an option Mr. Masaki? Furthermore, why should I even consider being a concubine if I was to even consider selling myself when I could be married?"

Having expected even more hostility than that, Katsuhito wasn't fazed in the least by Kasumi's hostility. "Let me explain Miss Tendo," Katsuhito calmly stated. "Legally, you are too young to be married except with parental consent. Most people getting married today do so without any obligation to their spouse's family. On the off chance you could find someone willing to pay a bride price, that money would be taxed as a gift taking a large chunk of it away from your family. Furthermore, any further money you sent to your family would be a gift taxable as such even if you could get it through your father's apparent pride."

"Being a concubine to a non-human opens up a different set of options. First off, no government likes dealing with unusual or supernatural events and so they tend to not try to update those regulations. Because of that, age is not an impediment for you or Ranma to set up a contract. Secondly, the original crafters of the rule wanted to insure that it was not abused by non-humans and made the fees and required maintenance cost very high. I think the minimum amount of money required to give to the concubine is around 800,000 yen a month but it could be higher since I don't check those kinds of rules that often. Finally, that money is non-taxable since the government wants to hide the supernatural by creating as little of a paper trail as possible."

Kasumi frowned and replied, "Thank you for your advice Mr. Masaki. However, I would prefer to discuss other lines of though than that." With that said, their conversation changed direction to how she could help her family cope and move on from the situation.


End file.
